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AGE 70 



REMINISCENCES 



Giving Sketches of Scenes Through Which 
the Author Has Passed and Pen Por- 
traits of People Who Have 
Modified His Life 



BY 



JOHN MASSEY 



NASHVILLE, TENN. 

DALLAS, TEX.; RICHMOND, VA. 

PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH 

SMITH & LAMAR, AGENTS 

I916 



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Copyright, 1916 

BY 

Smith & Lamar 



JUL 10 1916 



CI,A4'n807 




IX, <9 <$ 



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UP 



THE ALUMNA OF 

TUSKEGEE FEMALE COLLEGE 

ALABAMA CONFERENCE FEMALE COLLEGE 

AND 

WOMAN'S COLLEGE OF ALABAMA 

This volume is affectionately ded- 
icated, with all the royalty that 
may accrue and with the earnest 
desire that the Alumnae Associa- 
tion may be a great power in keep- 
ing the work of education thor- 
oughly Christian. 

John Massey. 



CONTENTS. 

Pagb. 
Preface 9 

CHAPTER I. 
Birthplace— Family Name— Father's Family— Mother's Family ll 

CHAPTER n. 

Country Life — Hunting — Trading Points — How We Preserved Fire — 
Games — Means of Travel — Drinking and Fighting 22 

CHAPTER HI. 
Our Neighbors 33 

CHAPTER IV. 

My Early Education— My Teachers : Mr. John James, Dr. A. J. Gra- 
ham, Mr. James A. Kimbrough, and Dr. A. J. Allen— My School- 
mates in Dr. Allen's School— My First Attempt at Teaching— My 
Second Attempt at Teaching 47 

CHAPTER V. 

Mr. George Frederick Mellen — Mrs. Alice Hayes Mellen — Experiences 
at the Springs — A Mob — How to Destroy Fleas — My First Original 
Speech $8 

CHAPTER VI. 

My Third Attempt at Teaching— The Beginning of My Religious Life 
—Professor Seth Smith Mellen— Joining the Church— Religious 
Experiences — School at Choclahana 69 

CHAPTER VII. 

Debating Society — Elected Assistant Teacher — Burial of Mr. Pierce — 
Miss Virginia Shaw, May Queen — Political Speaking — Fourth of 
July — Trip on Horseback — First Trip to Mobile 80 

CHAPTER VIH. 

Mother and Brothers — Mrs. Susan Huntington (Bush) Mellen — Going 
to College — Dr. George Frederick Mellen — John Parker and the 
Erosophic Society 89 

(5) 



6 REMINISCENCES. 

CHAPTER IX. p^^^. 

Tuscaloosa and the University — Religious Club — Mrs. Sarah Banks 
Sims 98 

CHAPTER X. 
Dr. Landon C. Garland — Professor John W. Pratt 108 

CHAPTER XI. 

Professor George William Benagh, A.M. — Professor Archibald J, Bat- * 
tie, A.M. — Professor William S. Wyman, A.M. — Professor John 
William Mallet, A.M., Ph.D.— Professor Andre DeLoffre— Professor 
William J. Vaughn, A.M 119 

CHAPTER XII. 

Colonel Caleb Huse — Colonel James Thomas Murfee — Captain C. L. 
Lumsden — Captain J. H. Morrison — Organization of the Alabama 
Corps of Cadets — Appointed Cadet Quartermaster — Dr. Basil Manly 
and Wife — The Secession of South Carolina 131 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Corps Presented to the Legislature — The Trend of Affairs — 
Speech of Judge A. B. Meek — Lack of Vision in Our Leaders — 
Firing on Fort Sumter — The Invasion of Virginia — Sent to Mont- 
gomery to Drill Troops — First Visit to Prattville — Dr. S. P. Smith — 
Mrs. Adelaide Julia (Allen) Smith — Promoted to State Lieutenant — 
Sent to North Alabama to Drill Troops — My Classmates 146 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Going into the Army — Colonel Henry W. Hilliard — Hilliard's Legion — 
Mrs. Mary L. Parker Thorington — Colonel J. Thorington — Legion 
Sent to Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Cumberland Gap — Experiences 
at Cumberland Gap — Excursion into Kentucky — Retreat from Ken- 
tucky — At Big Creek Gap during the Winter of 1862-63 — Grade's 
Brigade Formed 164 

CHAPTER XV. 
Encampment at Cumberland Gap — The Battle of Chickamauga 178 

CHAPTER XVL 

Losses in the Battle — Consolidation of the Legion — Excursion across 
French Broad River — Three Men Shot for Desertion — Disillusioned 
of My Dreams of Military Glory — Return to the University — Captain 
D. Poynor, Professor Cravvrford H. Toy, Captain John How^ard Mur- 
fee, and Mrs. Paul F. Tricou — Dr, Thomas Osmond Summers — Pro- 
fessors E. R. Dickson, B. F. Meek, and H. M. Somerville — Fight at 
Chehaw — Corps Sent to Blue Mountain, Pollard, and Blakely — Sent 
with a Guard to North Alabama 191 



REMINISCENCES. 7 

CHAPTER XVII. Page. 

University Burned— Members of Corps Wounded — March to Marion — 
Corps Disbanded — Starting to Join General Lee's Army — The As- 
sassination of President Lincoln — Back to Choctaw County — The 
School at Mount Sterling— The Oath of Allegiance— Rev. J. W. 
Rush— Marriage to Miss Fredonia A. Taylor— The Taylor Family. . 210 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Summerfield— Centenary Institute— Dr. A. H. Mitchell and Mrs. Fide- 
lia (Douglas) Mitchell— Mr. and Mrs. B. I. Harrison— Rev. and 
Mrs. Greenberry Garrett— Dr. John S. Moore— Mrs. S. L. W. Daniel 
—Dr. S. W. Vaughan 230 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Bishop James O. Andrew — Colonel Robert A. Baker — Mr. Mark Can- 
ning and Wife — Friction between the Races — Personal Feeling to- 
ward the Negroes — Death of Mrs. Fredonia A. Massey — Trouble 
among the Students — Advice of Dr. Mitchell — Marriage to Miss El- 
nora Frances Dallas — The Dallas Family — Students Who Have Be- 
come Distinguished — Colonel Samuel Will John 245 

CHAPTER XX. 

Move to Mobile— Mr. William Otis— Father Abram J. Ryan— Dr. E. 
P. Gaines — Dr. Jefferson Hamilton — Dawn of a Brighter Day for 
the South — The Last Speech of Jefferson Davis 264 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Move to Tuskegee — Lease of the College for Five Years — History of 
the College — Dr. Andrew A. Lipscomb — Dr. G. W. F. Price — Dr. 
Henry D. Moore 277 

CHAPTER XXn. 

My First Year's Experience in Teaching Girls — Miss Mary A. Barker 
—Miss Mary Alice Caller— Dr. Mark S. Andrews— Mr. William H. 
Flowers— Miss Ella R. Smilie— Miss Mary Belle Dallas— College 
Sunday School — Inquiries Whether I Would Accept Other Places — 
Colonel D. S. Troy's Opinion — Fine Music Department 289 

CHAPTER XXIIL 

Conditions That Favored My Work — Loyalty and Cooperation of My 
Teachers — Professors of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute — Major 
W. W. Screws — Chautauqua, New York — Changed Conditions — 
Woman's College of Alabama — Booker Washington — Trials and 
Their Issue — On Entering My Eighty-Second Year — Our Home 304 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
In Memoriam : Mrs. E. F. Massey 324 



PREFACE. 

Perhaps no man in the history of Alabama has lived more 
usefully or labored more wisely and productively than John 
Massey, the author of this book of reminiscences. The volume 
will yield both pleasure and profit to the very large circle of 
those who have learned to love and honor him both for his own 
and for his work's sake. 

That work has been of immeasurable importance and benefit 
to the people of Alabama and of other States and has already 
during his lifetime borne much and rich fruit, which, we are 
persuaded, is but the promise and prophecy of a much larger 
harvest to be surely reaped in future years by the multitude of 
men and women he has taught, inspired, and guided in their 
school and college years and that other numerous company of 
us who, outside the privileged circle of those who have sat at 
his feet as students, have been touched and influenced by the 
example of his life and impressed with his high ideals and con- 
secrated devotion to duty. 

Dr. Massey has rendered one more distinguished service to 
his people by giving them this book. Its value is manifold. 

It cannot fail to be helpful and inspiring to any young per- 
sons who, struggling against obstacles, however great and 
many, seek to secure an education which will fit them for hon- 
orable and useful life. The author has himself faced these 
difficulties and triumphed over them. 

The judicious character sketches of well-known men and 
women who have figured in Alabama and helped to make the 
history of the last seventy years add much to the interest and 
value of this work and will be useful to the future historian of 
the State. 

All former students of the University of Alabama, the Ala- 
bama Conference Female College (now the Woman's College 
of Alabama), and of other schools in which the Doctor has 
taught will be peculiarly interested in these reminiscences and 
profited and pleased as they read them. 

(9) 



lo REMINISCENCES. 

One of the charms of the volume consists in the glimpses 
given the reader here and there into the heart of the writer, 
revealing all unconsciously the motives and ideals which have 
molded his character, shaped his life, and made him what he is. 

The writer of this preface deems it not out of place to say- 
that with characteristic generosity the author donates to the 
Woman's College of Alabama any royalties that may accrue 
from the sales of this book. 

Assured that its influence will be productive of good, and 
only of good, to all who may read it, the writer commends it 
with the wish that it may be as enjoyable and profitable to 
others as it has been to him. A. J. Lamar. 

Nashville, Tennessee, April, 1916. 



X 



REMINISCENCES. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birthplace — Family Name — Father's Family — Mother's Family. 

A BOUT two miles from the State line between Alabama 
■^ ^ and Mississippi, twenty miles west of the Tombigbee 
River, and one hundred miles north of Mobile there is a spot 
that will always live in my memory. This was the scene of 
my childhood, a scene of sacred recollections, as I suppose 
every locality is in which a child first comes into conscious 
being. During the fourth decade of the last century this place 
was in almost an unmodified state of nature. It was not much 
changed from the state in which it had been familiar to the 
Choctaw Indians — for how long, no one could tell. The tribe 
had been moved to the Indian Territory, though some scatter- 
ing ones still remained up to the time of my early recollection. 

The place is four miles south of Okatuppa Creek, three 
miles west of Puscus Creek, and near three smaller creeks 
called Ratcliff Creeks, which are tributaries of Puscus. The 
country is hilly, with scarcely a level spot, except along the 
hammocks and creek bottoms. The original pines and poplars, 
oaks and hickories, chestnuts and sweet gums were still stand- 
ing just as they had stood for decades and some of them per- 
haps for centuries. There was something awe-inspiring in the 
sighing of the wind through these old giants of the woods. 
There was a charm in the undergrowth of blackjack and dog- 
wood, haw and huckleberry, grape and muscadine. 

This was .the native home of birds of many varieties and at 
certain seasons of the year the visiting place of great flocks of 
wood pigeons, blackbirds, and wild ducks. The woods were 
full of squirrels, which furnished sport and meat for the youth- 
ful huntsmen; and raccoons and opossums supplied game for 

(II) 



12 REMINISCENCES. 

the nightly hunt. Flocks of wild turkeys and herds of mmble- 
f ooted deer were too numerous to be counted ; while bears and 
panthers still lingered in the big swamps, so well calculated to 
inspire the imagination of a boy, whose pleasure is never great- 
er than when mingled with a spice of danger. 

The skies seemed brighter than they have ever appeared 
since. The morning sun peering through the trees had a soul- 
stirring power. The golden-tinted clouds at eventide inspired 
sentiments that I could neither name nor express. The stars 
looked down upon us mortals with twinkling intelligence. The 
Milky Way, cleaving the heavens with its shining hand, pro- 
voked many a question as to how it came to be, just as it had 
evoked inquiry from the men of the olden time. I asked many 
an unanswered question of the moon with her marvelous man 
as she continued monthly to repeat the story of her birth. Such 
were the scenes of my childhood where I dreamed many a 
boyish dream. 

After an absence of fifty-two years I visited this place in 
company with my daughter Mabelle and Mr. J. R. Land in 
October, 19 lo. I could exclaim with ^neas as he looked on 
the pictures of his native Troy, whose glory had departed: 
"Qiiam miitatiis ah illo" ("How changed from the place I 
knew in my childhood!") ! No familiar faces greeted me, as 
of yore. Every vestige of the old homestead had vanished. 
Of the cedars under whose shade I had spent so many happy 
hours, there was no sign remaining. The stately old trees that 
stood hard by lived only in my memory. I could recognize 
nothing but the shape of the ground and the site of the spring. 
Even the old hill that used to give plenty of room for my boy- 
ish feet now seemed small and hemmed in. Over the spot hov- 
ers a melancholy shadow. This change suggested by contrast 
a brighter world, where 

"With the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile," 

and recalled the lines of Mrs. Hemans, whose poems enter- 
tained my young mind in this place: 



REMINISCENCES. 13 

"Dreams cannot picture a world so fair; 
Pain and parting never enter there ; 
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom 
Beyond the stars and beyond the tomb." 

Family Name. 

The family name of Massey, as some of the branches in 
South CaroHna and Pennsylvania have traced it, is of French 
origin. As their accoimt runs, our ancestors went from France 
into England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The name, 
they say, was originally spelled Masse, was later changed to 
Massie, and finally into Massey, which is the usual spelling in 
England, Canada, and the United States. 

Whether our ancestors sprang from that irrepressible strain 
of Celtic blood that has survived in Devonshire from an un- 
known past and produced Drake and Hawkins, Raleigh and 
the Gilberts — the men that first attempted to colonize the New 
World — or whether they came from Hengist and Horsa and 
their Saxons who invaded England in 447, or whether they 
descended from Rollo and his Norsemen who settled in Nor- 
mandy in 876 and were transplanted to English soil in 1066, I 
know not nor set any store by. It is evident, however, that our 
ancestors came from a virile race holding the value of liberty 
above all other blessings. Whenever they have had a vision of 
a new land, they have braved the dangers of the ocean and the 
fury of savage men to possess it. This daring spirit of enter- 
prise brought them from England into Virginia and the Caro- 
linas, and from Virginia and the Carolinas they poured over the 
mountains into the West as far south as the Mississippi terri- 
tory. 

My immediate ancestors came from South Carolina into the 
"Bigbee country," which now constitutes Washington and 
Choctaw Counties, in Alabama. Like the Hebrew worthies of 
old, they plainly declared by their actions that they were ever 
seeking a better country. Carnegie says: "The best blood of a 
nation emigrates — the energetic, the most courageous, the most 
self-denying, the most hopeful. The dullard, the laggard, and 
the coward do not adventure much for better things." 



14 REMINISCENCES. 

Whatever records I had O'f my immediate family were at the 
University of Alabama and were destroyed in the burning of 
the buildings in the early morning of April 4, 1865, which 
event will be described later in these reminiscences. All the 
accounts I can give, therefore, of my family and my early life 
are dependent on my memory. 

Father's Family. 

My father, Drury Massey, was born about the year 1775 in 
Spartanburg District (County), South Carolina, near the pres- 
ent city of Spartanburg. He grew to manhood in that section, 
where he received his two years of schooling under Mr. James 
Threadgill, who taught in that district. I remember seeing 
some of his old copybooks containing the copies set by Mr. 
Threadgill in a very beautiful hand. My father had an older 
brother named John and another named William. These were 
common family names, as I learned from Governor A. B. 
Moore, who was from Spartanburg District and knew my fa- 
ther's family well. While I was associated with him in camps 
of instruction in 1861 he gave me some account of my South 
Carolina relatives. 

In his early manhood my father moved from South Carolina 
to Tennessee and settled on Duck River. About this time his 
imagination was captivated by the glowing descriptions of the 
Indiana Territory, which was being settled. But in the summer 
of 1813 the whole country was excited on account of the 
slaughter of the whites by the Creek Indians in the Mississippi 
Territory. So he enlisted in General Jackson's army and 
marched to what is now Alabama to fight the Creek Indians. 
On November 9 the battle of Talladega was fought; and on 
March 27, 18 14, occurred the most celebrated of all the battles 
with the Indians, the battle of Horse Shoe Bend, on the Talla- 
poosa River, near the site of Alexander City. The Indians had 
collected all their forces in this bend of the river, which is in 
the form of a horse shoe. They had fortified their position to 
the best of their ability. They were staking their fate on this 
battle. They fought with desperation until they were all killed, 



REMINISCENCES. 15 

except a few who made their escape by hiding in the water 
among the brush on the margin of the river. Their defeat 
broke the power of the Creek confederacy and made it much 
safer for white settlers to move into the Territory. In this bat- 
tle Jackson used some artillery against the Indians, who said : 
"Captain Jackson did not fight fair, because he shot wagons at 
us." When his cannon balls and grapeshot gave out, he folded 
up trace chains and shot them at the Indians. 

After destroying the Indians at Horse Shoe Bend, Jackson 
and his army went to Fort Toulouse, which was founded by the 
French about a hundred years previous, near the junction of the 
Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, a few miles above the city of 
Montgomery. The fort was thereafter called Fort Jackson. 
From this point Jackson went to Pensacola, Florida, where he 
captured a Spanish fort which was friendly to the English and 
was furnishing the hostile Indians with guns and ammunition. 
At first the Spaniards refused to surrender; but when they saw 
Jackson's men preparing ladders to scale the walls of their fort, 
they ran up a white flag and surrendered, thus avoiding the 
bloodshed that would have occurred if Jackson had been forced 
to carry out his original plan. Soon after disposing of the 
Spaniards in Pensacola, Jackson marched his forces to New 
Orleans, where he defeated the British in the celebrated battle 
of New Orleans on January 8, 18 15. In this battle Jackson 
had his men posted behind breastworks. He ordered them to 
withhold their fire until the British came near enough to show 
the whites of their eyes. The Tennesseeans being trained 
marksmen, the volley from their guns was most deadly when 
the order to fire was given. The British never recovered from 
the first repulse, in which their general. Sir Edward Michael 
Pakenham, was slain. Peace had been declared fifteen days 
before this battle ; but neither army knew it, so slow were the 
means of communication in those days. Sailing vessels were 
the most rapid news carriers. 

Soon after the battle of New Orleans the Tennessee troops 
marched back home through the central portion of what is now 



i6 REMINISCENCES. 

the State of Alabama, along what was afterwards known as the 
Old State Road. 

Father was a great admirer of General Jackson. In politics 
he was a Jacksonian Democrat. To show how widespread and 
enthusiastic the admiration for Jackson was, I have heard him 
state with evident pleasure that, wherever you might go, you 
would find the country full of little dirty-faced children called 
Andy Jackson in honor of the hero of Horse Shoe Bend and 
New Orleans. 

On one occasion during the expedition against the Indians 
and Spaniards some of the troops whose time of enlistment was 
out started home. The General rode around and got before 
them and told them in his positive tone : "By the Eternal, I will 
shoot the first man that moves forward. If you go home, you 
will go over my dead body." They remained with Jackson. 

So pleased was father with the splendid Alabama country 
that he moved from Tennessee a few years later and settled in 
the western part of the Territory, in the upper part of Washings- 
ton County (afterwards Choctaw), where he remained a quiet 
farmer to the end of his life, in 1848. So, owing to the fact of 
his coming to Alabama instead of going to the Indiana Terri- 
tory, I suppose I am an Alabamian instead of a "Hoosier." 

His first wife was a Miss Lowry, by whom he had three 
children — William, Dorothy, and James. His wife died when 
the youngest was an infant. I once heard him mention the 
sleepless nights he had spent walking the floor in watchful 
solicitude over this child that was left to his sole care. These 
children all grew to maturity and married. Dorothy married 
Mr. Alfred Swann. She died early, leaving one child, Dorothy 
("Dolly") Swann, of whom I have a pleasant recollection. 
William and James married cousins, each named Susanna 
("Susie") Shoemaker. They moved to Mississippi sometime 
after father's death, and I never saw them again after they 
left Alabama. 

Mother's Family. 

My mother's family also came from South Carolina. They 
belonged to a race that loved liberty and were of the Patriot 



REMINISCENCES. 17 

party during the Revolutionary War. The people of that col- 
ony were divided in their sentiments into V^o parties, the Pa- 
triots and the Tories. The Patriots were fighting for the free- 
dom of the colonies ; the Tories were the party that still clung 
to England. My maternal grandmother, whose name was Ann 
Vaughn, was a girl eight or ten years of age and was in a sec- 
tion that was overrun by the belligerents. So vivid was her 
recollection of the movement of the soldiers and the firing of 
the guns that she used to entertain us with thrilling accounts 
of the engagements between the British "Redcoats" and the 
ragged Patriots. Living then in South Carolina was as haz- 
ardous and harrowing as it was in the border States during our 
Civil War. 

When my grandmother grew to womanhood, she married 
Mr. Christopher Gorham, by whom she had four children — 
Tabitha ("Bithie"), Vashti, Christopher, and Sarah. Several 
years prior to 1813 they moved from Chester District, South 
Carolina, to the Bigbee country, as it was then called, in Wash- 
ington County, Mississippi Territory, and settled on the west 
side of the Mobile River just below the "cut-off," They came 
all the way from Central South Carolina in covered wagons, 
crossing the Chattahoochee River near the present site of Co- 
lumbus, Georgia, passing through the Creek Nation, which was 
not at all friendly to the whites. In those days there were two 
lines of travel from the East to the Bigbee country. One 
passed by old Fort Mitchell along the Chunnannuggee Ridge 
in a southwesterly direction through the territory now em- 
braced in Russell, Bullock, and Crenshaw Counties. The other 
ran farther north through the place where Tuskegee is now 
located, passing about ten miles east of the site of Montgomery. 
Through this northern route Aaron Burr was carried from 
Washington County to Richmond, Virginia, in 1807; and 
through this it is probable that the Gorhams came several years 
later. They crossed the Mobile River near the "cut-off." 

The Bigbee country had captivated their imaginations — an 
easy thing to do, as pioneer blood flowed through their veins. 
Not a great while after their arrival in their new home Mr. 



i8 REMINISCENCES. 

Gorham died and left Mrs. Gorham with her four children to 
be reared in a rough and uncivilized country surrounded by 
ravenous wolves and savage Indians. In the summer of 1813 
the Indians became alarmingly hostile. The whites had to go 
into forts to protect themselves from slaughter. Mrs. Gorham 
and her children went into Fort Stoddart, on the western side 
of the river, near the present Mount Vernon. Besides Fort 
Stoddart, there was a fort at Saint Stephens and another on the 
eastern side of the river called Fort Mims, from the name of 
the man who owned the ferry at that place. Fort Mims at the 
time contained over five hundred people. Under the leadership 
of William Weatherford, the celebrated half-breed chief, the 
Creek Indians butchered the occupants of Fort Mims on Au- 
gust 30, 1813. I knew an old gentleman, Mr. Isam Kimball, 
of Jackson, Alabama,, who was a lad in the fort at the time of 
the slaughter and who thought that he alone escaped to tell the 
fearful story. A few others, however, besides Mr. Kimball 
made their escape. The people in the other forts were in daily 
expectation of a similar fate. My grandmother had a blood- 
curdling recollection of those awful days which she sometimes 
painted in colors that made our hair stand on end and showed 
that the country of Daniel Boone was not the only section that 
might have borne the dreadful name of "Dark and Bloody 
Ground." The news of the slaughter at Fort Mims spread all 
over the country and brought armies from Georgia, Missis- 
sippi, and Tennessee. This was the occasion of the coming 
of General Jackson and his Tennesseeans, as stated above. 

My Aunt Tabitha died in her early womanhood. My Uncle 
Christopher Gorham married and had one son named Hebron. 
He lived in what was then Sumter (now a part of Choctaw) 
County, on Tickumbum Creek. About 1845 he moved west 
and died some years afterwards. My Aunt Sarah Gorham 
married a man named Ethelred Jones, who was called "Dred" 
Jones. To me he was rightly named "Dread" Jones, for he 
was at intervals addicted to immoderate drinking. He some- 
times came to our house during these spells and would attempt 
to take me in his arms and make much of me. On these occa- 



REMINISCENCES. 19 

sions I would leave and remain hid out until he was gone. I 
have had an aversion to a drunken man ever since, a feeling 
which I have found difficult to overcome even when I have 
sometimes had to render assistance to my drunken friends. 

Mr. Jones was one of the best farmers in all that country 
and commanded good salaries as superintendent of some of the 
largest plantations in Mississippi. His habit of drinking im- 
moderately at times was his only serious fault. ' Mrs. Jones 
was a bright, cheery woman who bore the conduct of her 
husband with striking fortitude and without a word O'f com- 
plaint. She was a faithful wife and mother. She had four 
daughters — Nancy, Caroline, Rebecca, and Narcissa — who oc- 
casionally visited our home. She also had one son, John, who 
died in early boyhood. They lived about twenty miles from 
us, across the Mississippi line. Some years before the war Mr. 
Jones died; and Mrs. Jones moved to Raymond, in Hinds 
County, Mississippi, where I visited her in the summer of 

1857. 

My father had been a widower fifteen years when he and 
my mother, Vashti Gorham, were married. Upon their mar- 
riage they came to live in a log house on the hill described in 
the first paragraph of these memoirs. In this house I was 
born on December 16, 1834. Soon afterwards they built a 
new log house, which was as good as any house in the neigh- 
borhood at that time. In the new house my brother Joel was 
born in 1836 and my brother Drury in 1838. 

My Grandmother Gorham made her home with us as long 
as she lived. I have overheard it stated in conversations 
among the neighbors that I was thought to be grandmother's 
favorite. If it was true, I did not merit this preference. 
Whether it was true or not, I owe her a debt of lasting grati- 
tude for her tender care and entertaining companionship. She 
was my first teacher in any matter pertaining to books. Among 
other things, she taught me the names of the books in the Bible 
in the order in which they stand in the King James translation, 
a knowledge that has aided me in finding readily any book in 
the Bible. If you wish to live In the pleasant memories of 



20 REMINISCENCES. 

people, teach children something which they can use advan- 
tageously all their lives. In the use of this acquirement names 
will come up by the laws of association. Referring to the 
books of the Bible always brings up the thought of my grand- 
mother. 

She was also one of my first teachers in morals. On 
one occasion I had not told the truth in some matter about 
which I was questioned. After I had gone to bed and was 
supposed to be asleep, I overheard her tell mother that she 
did not care so much about the transgression, but it grieved her 
"to think that John would tell a lie." She said nothing to me, 
but this burned into my conscience like fire. She had put 
an emphasis on the turpitude of lying that I could feel. By 
her grief revealed to me in this indirect way she had taught 
me a lesson I could never forget, a lesson which has enabled 
me to understand what true repentance is. When I am con- 
scious that my sin grieves God, I hate sin and I wish to have 
nothing to do with it. I know now that I should have had 
more candid, straightforward honesty and have gone to my 
grandmother and confessed; but this is one of the hard things 
to do In repentance, the thing which I did not do. If I had 
done it, I would have come out into the clear light of forgive- 
ness. I would have done the only thing which the sinner can 
ever do to blot out his sin and open the way between him and 
his fellow men and remove the cloud between him and God. 

I heard grandmother refer with manifest satisfaction to the 
reputation she bore in her earlier years of being "the most 
beautiful woman that ever drank the waters of the Bigbee." 
From the fine profile of her Roman nose and well-shaped fea- 
tures even in her old age when I knew her, I can easily believe 
that she was justly entitled to this distinction, I am sure that 
her character was as beautiful as her physical form was hand- 
some. 

She and all her family were Methodists. My mother, after 
her marriage, joined the Baptist Church to be in the same 
Church with her husband. 

In the early summer of 1848, a few weeks before father 



REMINISCENCES. 21 

died, I heard grandmother say to him very kindly and tender- 
ly : "The doctor does not seem to be doing you any good. I 
am afraid you have not long to stay with us. If you have any 
preparation to make, I think you ought to make it soon." He 
said very quietly : "My preparation is already made. When- 
ever it is the Lord's will to take me, I am ready to go." She 
was evidently gratified at his reply. About one year later, 
when she was, I think, in her eighty-fourth year, she knew that 
her departure was at hand. We were all called in to see her 
pass away as peacefully as if she had been falling asleep. 

For many years she had not been able to do any work except 
a little knitting, but she was a fine example of what old people 
can do. They can shed a radiance over the clouds of life's 
evening that relieves the gloom of the coming night. They 
should never account themselves useless while God lets them 
live. 

"For age is opportunity no less 
Than youth itself, though in another dress ; 
And as the evening twilight fades away 
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day." 

Most of the country for miles around was unsettled and was 
covered by the original forests that gave ample woods for me 
to roam in. It was my great delight to go with my father or 
any other person out into the woods hunting game or driving 
up the cattle and sheep. This was a delightful occupation even 
when I was too small to do anything but keep close to the heels 
of some older person. 

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods" for the humble 
child of the country as well as for England's gifted poet. 
While I have sometimes regretted that I did not have better 
educational advantages in my childhood, I am coming more 
and more to feel that, after all, these wanderings in the woods 
and these communings with nature gave me more desire for 
education In later years than I might have had if I had been 
plied too severely with educational methods and surfeited with 
the very thought of school life. 



CHAPTER II. 

Country Life — Hunting — Trading Points — How We Preserved Fire — 
Games — Means of Travel — Drinking and Fighting. 

"^X /"E lived the simple rural life. We raised everything in 
^^ the way oi provisions at home. Cows furnished milk 
and butter, and beef occasionally. Hogs supplied bacon and 
lard, and spareribs and backbones at "hog-killing time." Sheep 
furnished mutton chops and wool for our winter clothing. 
Bees produced the honey for sweetening and wax for candles. 
The poultry yard supplied eggs and chickens for frying and 
chicken pics. Deer furnished venison frequently. Wild tur- 
keys, partridges, squirrels, and opossums were easily procured 
for variety in the way of meats. Yams, Spanish, white and 
red (called "nigger killers") potatoes were grown in abundance 
and put up in banks for winter use. Turnips, coleworts (called 
"collards"), onions, white peas, and beans were the standard 
vegetables. 

Often our meal was ground on a hand mill made of two 
rocks about sixteen or eighteen inches in diameter, the lower 
one fixed stationary in a section of a large hollow tree, the 
upper one made to turn on a pivot and with a hole in the middle 
about three inches in diameter, into which the corn was placed 
by the handful as it was ground out of the mill. The upper 
rock was turned by a staff sharpened to a point at the lower 
end and placed in a small hole in the edge of the rock and 
made to work loosely in a hole some five or six feet above, 
which held the staff stationary at the top. By means of this 
staff the rock was turned, and the meal came out through an 
opening adjusted with a spout into a vessel below. This grind- 
ing by hand was hard work and was one of the occupations of 
my boyhood. 

There were two water mills in the country, one about six 
miles from us and the other about eight. Another of my occu- 
pations was "going to mill," an occupation that could not en- 

(22) 



REMINISCENCES. 23 

tirely be appropriated by Henry Clay, "the mill boy of the 
slashes." A bushel and a half or two bushels of corn were put 
into a long sack, divided into two equal parts, and placed upon 
a horse. I rode upon the sack to mill even when I was so small 
that the miller had to take the sack from the horse when I 
reached the mill. I had to "take my turn." If there were few 
ahead of me, I could get my corn ground and return home 
early; but if there were many ahead, I would sometimes be in 
the night getting home. One of the diversions while waiting 
for my corn to be ground was swimming in the mill pond. I 
have remained in the pond for hours, until my back would be 
so blistered in the sun that my mother would have to grease it 
with cream. 

Our clothing was all made out of homespun cloth. This 
was carded, spun, woven, cut out, and made at home. Many a 
night I have read and studied by a "lightwood" fire while 
mother carded the rolls and spun the thread which was to go 
into the loom after it was dyed in copperas (reddish yellow), 
indigo (blue), walnut bark (dark brown), or sumac berries 
(dark red). I never wore a store-bought garment until I 
was quite a large boy. I remember the first pair of shoes I 
ever had, made by my father, who was the shoemaker, cooper, 
and blacksmith for the household. While we had plenty of all 
the necessaries of life, we had little money. I do not think I 
ever saw, all told, ten dollars in money until I was twelve or 
fourteen years old. 

My earliest work on the farm was dropping corn and peas 
and thinning and hoeing corn. As soon as I was large enough 
to hold the plow handles I was engaged in plowing, of which 
I was very fond. As I grew older I was employed in clearing 
new grounds, burning brush, rolling logs, splitting rails, and 
building fences. When I was not engaged in work at home I 
would work for the neighbors at fifty cents a day If they 
needed extra help or on the public road In some one's place 
who would rather pay me than to work himself. On one oc- 
casion I was working on the public road with some twelve or 
fifteen others, some white men and some negroes. Colonel 



24 REMINISCENCES. 

Alfred Yates was superintending the work. Mr. John James 
passed along and fell into conversation with Colonel Yates. 
They noticed how some of the men slighted their work. Point- 
ing to me, Mr. Yates said : "There is a boy who works well." 
Mr. James remarked: "Yes; that boy always works well. I 
wish I had a hundred boys like him." I think my education 
depended somewhat on the faithful work which I did on that 
road. This will appear later in this story of my life. 

When I was about twelve years old my mother was danger- 
ously sick nearly all one winter and was attended by Dr. Ed- 
mond P. Gaines. For weeks I had to rise early and go three 
miles to Dr. Gaines to report to him on my mother's condition 
and get medicine before he went out on his calls for the day. 
In the cold mornings I would be almost frozen when I reached 
the doctor's. I shall never forget Mrs. Gaines's kindness. She 
would have me come in and take breakfast with them, cold and 
stiff and dirty as I was and sensibly aware of my poor appear- 
ance at their fine table of well-dressed people. Her wafers, 
biscuit, and coffee have a distinct place in my memory. Mrs. 
Dr. E. P. Gaines is my ideal of Southern womanhood. She 
was a daughter of Judge Harry Toulmin, of Mobile. The doc- 
tor, when he was my family physician in Mobile twenty-eight 
years afterwards, frequently referred pleasantly to our ac- 
quaintance "up in old Choctaw." He was a specimen of the 
old-time aristocracy of the South. The Gaines family was a 
large and influential one. Mr. George S. Gaines and General 
Edmond Pendleton Gaines, for whom Dr. E. P. Gaines was 
named, were prominently connected with the early history of 
the State. Mr. George W. Gaines was a fellow student of 
mine at Pierce's Springs, Mississippi. A number of the young- 
er members of the Gaines families were my pupils in the years 
immediately succeeding the war. Among these I have pleasure 
in mentioning Mr. Henry L. Gaines, commission merchant of 
Mobile, Dr. Vivian P. Gaines, prominent physician of Mobile, 
and several of Mr. William D. Gaines's children, formerly of 
Mount Sterling, Alabama, but later of Texas. When I en- 
tered the University of Alabama, in 1859, I carried with me a 



REMINISCENCES. 25 

complimentary letter of introduction from Mr. Reuben R. 
Gaines, who was in 191 1 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of Texas. It has always been a source of pleasure to have had 
good friends among this distinguished family. 

Hunting. 

I was taught to shoot with a light, long-stocked, single- 
barreled, flint-and-steel shotgun when, I think, I was not more 
than seven years old. Part of my business during the summer 
months was to keep the squirrels out of the cornfield. So 
numerous were they that they would destroy nearly all the corn 
for ten or fifteen rows around the edges of the field. By going 
around it several times a day, especially mornings and eve- 
nings, I could keep them pretty well killed out and scared 
off and have plenty of squirrels for breakfast every morning. 
In the fall, when hickory nuts were maturing and chinquapins 
were opening, we liad fine opportunities for hunting squirrels. 
When wild turkeys came into the fields to feed on peas, I 
occasionally killed one with my shotgun. I killed my first 
deer when I was about nine years old. This was one of 
the triumphs of my early boyhood. It was a small deer; 
but I was not able to carry it with my gun to the house, a dis- 
tance of about half a mile. After making several attempts to 
shoulder the deer and getting my clothes bloody, I ran home 
v^^ith my gim, telling my mother in a very excited manner that 
I had killed a deer. She laughed rather incredulously, just as 
some of my good friends do now when I tell this story; but 
when she saw the blood on my clothes she was convinced. My 
father was out at the time, but I could not wait for his return. 
Putting my gim up in the rack, I went back at full speed to 
find the deer getting stiff, so that I managed to get it up on 
my shoulder and with some difficulty reached home with it. 
So proud was I of this achievement that I carried some pieces 
of the meat around to the neighbors. 

Later, after I had become a good rifle shot, I discarded the 
shotgun almost entirely. It was so much more pleasure to do 
accurate shooting with the rifle. I had the art of shooting 



26 REMINISCENCES. 

with the rifle so well in practice that I could shoot a squirrel's 
head off or merely graze his head with the ball just enough to 
kill him. If he were lying on a limb, I could shoot under his 
throat, tearing up the bark of the limb, which would kill him 
without breaking his skin. Thus the skill in shooting afforded 
as much or even more pleasure than the capture of the game. 

Another sport of the woods was hunting for turkeys in 
"gobbling time." But I never was very successful in calling 
them up with the yelping quill. On one occasion I saw a very 
large gobbler fly up from the woods and light in a tall pine 
about seventy-five yards from me. I took good aim, as I 
thought, and fired. The gobbler fell flopping through the 
limbs. I had almost reached the place where he fell by the 
time he struck the ground. I fully expected to take home a 
fine turkey ; but I had only broken one wing, about the middle. 
As soon as he hit the ground he began running at full speed 
and I after him at my best speed. I gained on him for a 
while, until I could almost strike him with my gun, but he 
could get through the brush more easily than I. So, after a 
race of several hundred yards, we began to climb a big hill. 
As his wind was better than mine, he gradually gained on me; 
and by the time I reached the top of the hill he was out of 
sight, wing-broken and, I have no doubt, glad of his escape, 
while I was wind-broken and very much disappointed at my 
failure. 

When I was about twelve years old I was out in the woods 
one morning looking for a flock of turkeys, I had stopped to 
listen, when I heard something that sounded like the nipping 
of leaves. I discovered a buck deer with branching horns. I 
took good aim and fired, and as soon as the smoke cleared 
away I saw him struggling on the ground about forty or fifty 
steps from me. I waited until I was sure that he was dead, 
when I approached and saw that I had taken the largest prize 
of my life in the way of game. I then ran home, hallooing 
at the top of my voice : 'T've killed an old buck!" 

"Fire-hunting" was another species of deer-hunting at night 
that had its fascination. We used a kind of griddle made 



REMINISCENCES. 27 

of strips of iron fastened to a wooden handle four or five 
feet long and filled with fat lightwood (that is, yellow pine 
rich in turpentine), which made a bright torchlight. The 
huntsman placed this handle over his left shoulder, putting the 
light behind him. This light would attract the attention of the 
deer, and as they looked at the light their eyes would shine like 
balls of fire. The practiced huntsman, even when he could not 
see the deer, knew how to aim so as to strike the deer about 
the neck. 

The eyes of all animals shine, giving a different kind of lus- 
ter. It is easy to distinguish a deer's eyes from all others ex- 
cept a horse's, which are slightly farther apart than a deer's. 
I have heard old huntsmen say that they could not distinguish 
the shining of a colt's eyes from that of an old buck's. 

Two gentlemen in the neighborhood went into a swamp corn- 
field to look for deer one night. Just as they entered the field 
they shined the eyes of an immensely large old buck. He was 
so near to them that they could see his whole form. The man 
with the gun and firepan aimed his rifle, as he thought, so as 
to break the deer's neck. At the "crack" of the gun the deer 
fell, and the hunters ran to him and with a butcher's knife 
attempted to "stick" him (to cut his jugular vein) to let the 
blood out. The buck kicked the knife out of hand and be- 
gan to rise. The two men grabbed him by the horns; but 
he was so strong that he dragged them around in the mud, 
put out the light, and skinned their hands with his rough horns. 
They were afraid to turn him loose and were getting awfully 
tired of their predicament. They called long and loud for 
help, till at last a man came more than half a mile, got a heavy 
rail off the fence, placed it over the deer's neck back of his 
horns, and crushed him down till they could cut his throat. 
The deer's neck was not broken. The ball had missed the neck 
bone and had only stunned him, but had not deprived him O'f 
his natural strength. 

Another kind of night-hunting of which I was very fond 
was for possums and coons. This was done by the aid of 
dogs. A good possum dog was a great treasure. The dogs 



28 REMINISCENCES. 

would "tree" the animals and stand at the tree and bark until 
we came. Then we either cut the tree down, when the dogs 
would capture the game, or, if the tree was too large, we 
would "shine" the animal's eyes and shoot him out, if it was a 
dark night; but if it was a moonlight night, we would move 
around till we got him between us and the moon. In this 
position it was as easy to shoot him by moonlight as by day- 
light. Sometimes on these possum hunts we would get lost 
or turned around so we could not tell which direction tO' go. 
We would then build a fire and lie down until day or wander 
around until we came to some place we knew. Sometimes our 
sense of direction would be so completely confused that it 
was with great difficulty that we could believe our eyes suf- 
ficiently to take the right end of the road. On these pos- 
sum hunts we generally carried one of Mr. James's colored 
men named John. We called him "Kimbo." He was a good 
man, whom I have always remembered with gratitude and af- 
fection. He took as much care of us as if we had been his 
own children. With him began my friendship for the negroes, 
which still lives after the lapse of nearly threescore and ten 
years. The negro has wonderful power to attach himself to 
the white man when he chooses to exercise it, and I do not 
believe that he will ever find another man of a different race 
who has as much capacity for good feeling toward him as the 
Southern white man. 

Another form of deer-hunting was the "drive." At the 
place appointed the huntsmen would assemble with the blowing 
of horns and the barking of hounds. Out of the company as- 
sembled for the drive, one would take the dogs to the place 
where the deer were supposed to be. The others would take 
"stands" where the deer would be apt to come out when 
"jumped" by the dogs. When the dogs got on the trail of the 
deer there would be the greatest yelping, which was music to 
the huntsmen's ears. As the deer came out the hunters would 
fire. Then, unless the deer were all killed, the chase would 
begin in earnest and might last for hours, attended with great 
noise from the yelping of the hounds and the firing of the 



REMINISCENCES. 29 

guns. After the chase was over, the game was brought in, 
skinned, and the meat divided among the hunters. The ones 
who did the kilHng were entitled to the skins. Deerskins were 
considered very valuable. There was an Indian in the neigh- 
borhood who dressed the skins and converted them into fine 
buckskin. 

The more formidable animals, such as bears, panthers, and 
wolves, had nearly all vanished before my hunting days began. 
One of the experiences of my father was quite thrilling. He 
was riding through the woods one day, when he heard a great 
disturbance among a drove of hogs. He rode up among them 
and was wondering what caused the disturbance, when sud- 
denly down tumbled a piece of pig from the branches above his 
head. He looked up and saw a large panther gazing down at 
him, seemingly just in the act of leaping upon him. He put 
spurs to his fine mare and was quickly out of danger. 

Trading Points. 

The trading points of my earliest recollection were Priester's 
store, Barryton, and later Nicholson's store. Mr. Charles 
Priester had been a merchant in Mobile and moved up into our 
neighborhood, where he kept a country store. Barryton was a. 
village five miles from Slater's Landing, on the Tombigbee 
River, and had several country stores. Nicholson's store final- 
ly became the main trading point for the neighborhood. Most 
of the articles we bought came from this store. In the fall of 
the year, however, some of the people would carry their cotton 
in ox wagons to Mobile and make their more substantial pur- 
chases for the year. It took about two weeks to go to Mobile 
and back in ox wagons. This trade with Mobile became more 
frequent until the building of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, 
in the early fifties, almost entirely supplanted the wagon trade. 

How We Preserved Fire. 

There were no such things as matches in that early time. 
In he winter, when we had large fires made of oak and hick- 
ory wood, it was easy to keep fire through the night by banking 



30 REMINISCENCES. 

the coals with ashes ; but in the summertime we used flint and 
steel to strike the fire with and punk (called "spunk") for tin- 
der to catch and kindle the sparks into flame. Sometimes we 
took a very small quantity of powder and a wad of cotton and 
struck the flint and steel over it, the flash of powder igniting" 
the cotton, which was kindled into a flame. With this flame fat 
light wood splinters were lighted. I have started many a fire 
in this way. 

Games. 

Our games were simple compared with the highly developed 
games of the present day. They served well, however, for 
sport and athletic exercise. We played "cat," "town ball," and 
"bull pen" — all of which had some rules. We also wrestled, 
jumped, and ran foot races. I was very fond of this last form 
of sport, because I could excel in it. I never did like to engage 
in anything in which I could not be among the first. I met 
only one man, a Mr. McKithern, who could excel me in a reg- 
ular foot race. There was in the neighborhood an Indian by 
the name of Tom who taught me one thing in the matter of 
foot-racing in which I could surpass all competitors I ever met. 
It was this : Lying on my back, with my head, my hands, and 
my heels on the ground, my competitor standing even with my 
head, at the signal, "One, two, three," we sprang forth and ran. 
Such control had I over my muscular system and so well prac- 
ticed was I in this feat that I could leap forth at one bound and 
get even with, if not ahead of, my rival. Dice, chess, domi- 
noes, and other indoor games I never heard of in my boyhood. 
This statement makes the modern youth smile at his superior 
advantages compared with the boy of the backwoods seventy 
years ago. 

Means of Travel. 

I never saw a buggy nor a carriage in those primitive days. 
When we did not walk, we traveled on horseback. The boys 
and girls all learned to be skillful riders. I remember distinct- 
ly how gracefully the Misses Yates, the Misses Pippin, Miss 
Mahala James, and others used to ride over the neighborhood 



REMINISCENCES. 31 

on their fine horses. They would go in a gallop up and down 
hills and over rough roads with entire safety. I do not recall 
that any one was ever seriously hurt, and rarely did one fall 
from a horse. At almost every home and at the churches 
there were block steps for the ladies to mount from. The la- 
dies rode sidesaddles. There were no such things as "divided 
skirts," which, the moderns claim, enable ladies to ride so much 
more safely and gracefully. But I have not seen any modern 
riding equal to the skill, dash, and grace of the olden time. 

Drinking and Fighting. 

In those early days I never heard of such a thing as prohibi- 
tion. Every one made as much whisky and wine as he chose, 
sold as much as there was demand for, gave away a good deal, 
and drank to his satisfaction. Some people kept spirits (usu- 
ally whisky and brandy) on their sideboards all the time. Vis- 
itors could always take a drink if they desired. Whisky was 
nearly always used at "log-rollings" and "house-raisings." It 
was thought to be necessary to give vim and spirit in heavy 
work. It was not a very common thing to see men get drunk 
and helpless from intoxication, but it was very common to see 
them become excited and boisterous and quarrelsome. Fight- 
ings and killings were sometimes the result, especially on elec- 
tion days. In these fights the men very rarely used guns ; and 
I do not think they carried pistols, as a rule. They generally 
fought fairly with their fists ; and whenever a man was down 
and cried oii»t, "Enough! Take him ofif!" it was considered 
dishonorable to hit him another lick. They did sometimes, 
however, fight with pocketknives. We had more fights then 
than we have now, but fewer killings; for the "pistol-toting" 
habit, so far as I knew, was not then in vogue. If pistols were 
used at all, it was on dueling occasions. 

Some years later, about 1852, the first temperance movement 
was made in Choctaw County by an organization called the 
Sons of Temperance. This movement met with favor among 
the better class of people generally, because it was becoming 



^2 REMINISCENCES. 

evident that some restrictions ought to be placed upon drinking- 
spirituous liquors. 

Some good angel sent by Providence must have been over 
me through the perilous period of boyhood. One Christmas 
Eve night about half a dozen of us boys, some older than my- 
self, vi^ent out to shoot "Christmas guns." We loaded our guns 
heavily with powder and rammed a tight wad down on the 
powder. We would go softly up to the chimney corner of 
neighbors' houses and fire off these deafening volleys, which 
would startle the inmates. The performance was generally 
taken in good humor and regarded as a boyish prank. We 
had gone about two miles from home on one of these occasions, 
when some of the older boys pulled out some bottles of whisky. 
They began drinking and handing it around. Till then I did 
not know that they had the whisky. The impulse not to drink 
came over me suddenly, and I said : "I am not going to take 
any." They said: "O yes; you must take some." I stepped 
back and said positively : "I am not going to take any. I will 
go home rather than do it." They replied: "O well, then, 
don't go back. Come on with us." I went on with them, but 
did not take a drop. They got "boozy" and acted foolishly 
and, I think, probably would have done worse if I had not, 
late in the night, taken charge of them and carried them to the 
house of one of the party. I was in bad company ; and if I had 
not obeyed my good impulse then, I cannot say what might 
have become of me, for we never know where we may end 
when we start on the downward road. 



CHAPTER III. 

Our Neighbors. 

A S our neighbors and associates have much to do with shap- 
^ ^ ing our lives, I will, for several reasons, refer to some who 
lived in our community: first, in order to give a picture of the 
community life; secondly, to point some moral lessons; and, 
thirdly, to acknowledge my obligations to several who rendered 
me great and lasting service. I shall endeavor to give a true 
picture and at the same time to guard against any statements 
that can do any harm. We all make our records and leave 
behind us our influence. If a faithful portrayal of our faults 
and mistakes can do our successors any good by warning them 
against like errors, we should not object to having them truth- 
fully stated. 

As the years passed, more people moved into the community, 

built houses, and cleared land. Among them old Mr. S 

and Mr. Reuben Hayes settled about half a mile from us. Mr. 
John James bought a large tract of land and built a good 
frame house about a quarter of a mile from my father; Mr. 
Leander Jenkins, two miles and a half south; Mr. Charles 

P and Mr. R. H. A , two miles and a half north ; Mr. 

Alfred Yates, about the same distance west. Later Mr. Dennis 
L settled about a mile east. 

There was a neighborly spirit existing among these families. 
Interchange of visits was free and informal. Taking meals 
and staying all night at neighbors' houses were common oc- 
currences. These people were not highly learned, except Mr. 
James, but they were kind-hearted and honest. They did not 
have modern polish, but they had magnanimous hospitality. 
They had their sickness and their sorrows, but they had their 
natural recreations and their genuine pleasures. They had 
their trials and toils, but they had their gladness "as in the time 
of the harV'Cst." Most of them did their own work and knew 
no such things as the states expressed by nervousness and 

3 (33) 



34 REMINISCENCES. 

ennui. The history of most of them is the "short and simple 
annals of the poor." 

Mr. Allen Y had come from one of the Carolinas, I 

think, to the Choctaw Nation, among the earliest white settlers. 

He married Miss Millie N , who was one-fourth Indian, 

though her complexion did not show it. Through her Indian 
relationship and the good management of her brother, Mr. 

Maurice N ', who was agent for the Indians, she inherited 

a considerable body of rolling prairie land which was exceed- 
ingly fertile. The Y s at first lived in a log house, which 

was still standing when I visited the place in 1910. 

Mr. Y was a good farmer and an energetic business 

man. With his own labor and that of his first negro servant, 
Charles, he made money rapidly. With this he yearly pur- 
chased more negroes, by whose labor he made more money to 
buy more negroes. By the time of my earliest recollection he 
was by far the wealthiest man of the neighborhood. By 
continued purchases and natural increase he had, I should say, 
more than a hundred negroes in i860. There was in his plan- 
tation a high knoll about half a mile from us. From this knoll 

I often heard Mr. Y urging forward his "hands" in their 

work. As his fortune grew, his acquisitiveness grew, till mon- 
ey, or rather land and negroes, seemed to be the object of his 
ambition. But he failed to "make friends with the mammon 
of unrighteousness" and thus failed to shed a cheerful light 
over the close of a career of successful accumulation. He was 
found dead out in his plantation, where two of his negro wom- 
en had crushed his head with their hoes. 

Mrs. Y was the antipode of Mr. Y in every respect 

except industry and good management. She was one of our 
best neighbors. She was a regular visitor at our house and was 
generous in sharing her delicacies when there was any sickness 
in the family. Though a large woman, she would ride around 
in the neighborhood on her horse visiting the sick and making 
herself friendly with everybody. She was a loyal Methodist 
whose kindness still lives in my memory and, I have no doubt, 
in the memory of others, if any are yet living who knew her. 



REMINISCENCES. 35 

If not remembered on earth, I am sure the recording- angel has 
registered her good deeds on high. From her example I 
learned that wealth is not always a hindrance to generosity and 
good fellowship among meru 

Another of our first neighbors was old Mr. Dick A . 

He was the very opposite of Mr. Allen Y . He seemed to 

have no acquisitiveness whatever. He seemed intuitively to 
have apprehended Horace's statement of the lowest phase of 
the Epicurean doctrine: "Carpe diem qiiani minime credula 
postero" ("Enjoy the day, bothering about the future as little 
as possible"). He reduced this doctrine to practice. A good 
meal seemed to satisfy him fully and to turn his tongue loose 
in a constant stream of garrulity. How a man who had never 
read and never traveled knew so much was a thing to be won- 
dered at. He could tell some of the most marvelous stories, 
that had to be taken with many grains of allowance if one was 
to have any regard for his reason. He was a frequent visitor 
at our house and was sure to make his visitations take in at 
least one meal, if not two. My mother always had plenty of 

good fare and enjoyed seeing her visitors relish it. Mr. A 

was accommodating and ready to gratify the pleasure she felt 
in dispensing her hospitality. His excuse in coming was, quite 
often, to grind his ax on our grindstone, which I had to turn 
while he ground. I did not much enjoy hearing the command : 
"John, turn the grindstone for Mr. A ." 

He was one of those primitive characters who seemed to 
have no ambition for anything higher than simple existence. 
He cultivated a little patch that could not be called a farm. H 
he had meat, it was killed in the woods with his old-fashioned 
flint-and-steel rifle. He had several children — Joshua, Tom, 
and others — who lived in a little hut at the foot of a big hill, in 
the side of which they had excavated holes and covered them 
over with timbers and earth. These were prepared as a refuge 
in time of storms, indicating that their desire for life was real, 
though simple. There were many old "clay roots" in that 
vicinity, showing that it had once been visited by a cyclone. I 
never knew whence they came nor whither they went. 



36 REMINISCENCES. 

The moral I would draw from Mr. A 's life is that some 

acquisitiveness is a necessary element in human nature. A 
person entirely destitute of it is a worthless member of society. 
The person who has the most of it is prepared to be the most 
valuable member if he subordinates it to his nobler sentiments. 
He is the more manly man who strives for competency and in- 
dependence. He is the better patriot who has accumulated 
something", but who subordinates his love of gain to his love 
of country. He is the better philanthropist who likes to have 
his business prosper, but who loves his fellow men more than 
he loves his possessions. He is the better Christian whose ener- 
gies result in accumulated resources, but whose love to God 
prompts him to employ his resources in advancing the kingdom 
of heaven among his fellow men. 

Old Mr. and Mrs. S ■ were kind and inoffensive neigh- 
bors. They were poor, though she was the sister of the wealth- 
iest man in the community. Their simple little home had two 
skeletons in it that could not be hidden. They had four sons — 
Alfred, William, Joseph, and Richard. Alfred was a normal, 
respectable man and a good citizen. William and Joseph had 
the smallest heads I ever saw on men and were exceedingly 
defective in mentality, especially "J^^/' who was scarcely a 
degree above idiocy. They were harmless except, perhaps, 
when roused to anger. They were unable to do any profitable 
work. William (called "Bill") was in the habit of going out 
into the woods and talking to himself in a loud voice for hours 
at a time, as if preaching to a crowd. Joe was still more defec- 
tive. His countenance and tones of voice proclaimed his im- 
becility. Richard, the youngest son, was near my age and was 
sometimes a visitor at our home. He was normal mentally, 
but not strong physically. 

If these old people ever discussed their sorrow, I never knew 

it, though I heard Mrs. S talk to mother and grandmother 

many times. There are some seemingly inscrutable things in 
human nature. Wliy did this terrible affliction come on these 
two old people? Why were these dark shadows that could 



REMINISCENCES. 37 

never be removed cast on their home? If we knew all the 
facts, we might be able to see the cause. 

Old Uncle Jimmie D was another interesting neighbor 

who seemed to have been drawn to our home by plenty of good 
eating as well as by a desire to talk. I have always remem- 
bered him as the biggest eater I have ever known. I am reluc- 
tant to tell how much I have seen him eat, it borders so much 
on the extravagant and seems so much like a Munchausen sto- 
ry. He would eat a good part of a basket of peaches before 
dinner and then say that they "only made his stomach gnaw." 
He would eat a considerable part of a country-cured ham or 
a chicken, and alternate with a bowl of sweet milk and a bowl 
of buttermilk several times. He once went to • Nicholson's 
store (as the story was told) and called for a bit's worth 
(twelve and a half cents) of coffee and a bit's worth of sugar, 
remarking that he intended to "live while he did live." Ac- 
cording to my best recollection, he died of dropsy and in great 
suffering. He reversed the motto of the old Greek philoso- 
pher : "Live not to eat, but eat to live." He rejected the advice 
of Solomon : "Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given 
to appetite." 

Uncle Jimmie D' was a member of the Baptist Church 

and, I hope, was, after a sort, a Christian man. But no man 
can be a clean, well-rounded Christian who does not subordi- 
nate all of his appetites and all of his desires to the highest end 
of his being. Let young people be assured of this : "Whatso- 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that sowetli 
to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth 
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." 

Mr. Charles P and Mr. R. H. A were brothers-in- 
law, their wives being sisters. Mrs. P was a very hand- 
some, bright-eyed, sunny-faced woman, who dressed well and 
was full of good cheer and neighborly feeling. Whether this 
was natural with her, whether it was owing to easy circum- 
stances and good health, or whether it was cultivated, I never 
knew; but the outward fact I remember distinctly. She had 



38 REMINISCENCES. 

two sons, Reuben and Henry, who were my occasional asso- 
ciates until they moved back to Mobile, whence they came. 

Mrs. A was the counterpart of Mrs. P , Either 

from ill health, the burden of a large family, and the pressure 
of limited means or a melancholy disposition, she was a sad- 
faced woman who evidently looked on the dark side of life. 
This was manifested in her countenance, her tones of voice, and 
in her readiness to see the shortcomings of other people. The 
causes were too deep for my young eyes, but her sad face is 
before my mind yet. No doubt she could have remedied some 
of this if she had gone to the right source. It is hard, however, 

to rise above one's spiritual level. Mr. A was of a lively 

disposition, full of frolic and fun, and, to put it in the mildest 
term, sometimes indulged in a jovial cup. 

Their oldest son, George, was about my age and was my 
schoolmate in the neighborhood and later at Pierce's Springs. 
He was a boy of fine qualities and capable of deep friendships, 
but was finally led to ruin by speculation. He involved him- 
self and one of his best friends who went on his note as secur- 
ity and finally had to pay the debt, to his financial embarrass- 
ment. This noble friend stood by him to the last. When 
broken in fortune and wrecked in health and nothing but death 
staring him in the face, George was heard to say : "O, I wish 
I had lived like John Massey!" Dear George! He possessed 
splendid qualities. He was my friend, but the demon of *'Get 
Rich Quick" caused his downfall. I hope that he got ready 
for the final summons. He is not the only good man I have 
seen go to ruin through speculation. It is a species of gam- 
bling. It disqualifies men for legitimate business; it under- 
mines their moral standards ; it destroys their religious life ; it 
is the deadly Upas that blights everything it touches. 

Mr. Reuben Hayes moved into our neighborhood when I 
was about nine years of age. He was a tall, slender man, over 
six feet in height, with Roman nose, kindly blue eyes, and 
pleasant expression. He was a man of limited education, who 
made his living by farming on a small scale. He was a good 
neighbor, a man of excellent character and cheerful piety. He 



REMINISCENCES. 39 

was a good singer and delighted in protracted meetings, which 
were frequently held in the Methodist churches in those days. 
His religious zeal, however, was no mere "wet-weather spring," 
but flowed on through the times of spiritual drought as well 
as through the flush times of revival. While he was reverent 
and sincere in his religious life, his religion did not make him 
repulsive to boys who are quick to detect shams and are easily 
disgusted with noisy pretensions. To captivate boys we have 
to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Mr. Hayes 
had not forgotten that he had been a boy himself. While he 
never countenanced a thing that he thought to be wrong, he 
made no harsh criticisms on our innocent amusements, but was 
as ready to participate in a good joke as we were. 

As I grew older he took special interest in whatever inter- 
ested me. He drew out my plans in a sympathetic, friendly 
manner and did not oppose me abruptly, even when he did not 
think my plans were the best, but gradually brought me around 
to his way of thinking. On one occasion, after the death of 
my father, I was making my arrangements to haul freight 
from the river, a remunerative business for those times. Mr. 
Hayes did not offer any objection to my plan at first; but, 
after some days of waiting, he very kindly unfolded to me that 
my associations would be of a demoralizing kind, that there 
would be nothing in the business for me except the money I 
might make, and that I would be subjected to exposure from 
camping out on the road. He finally prevailed on me toi aban- 
don the hazardous undertaking. He thus influenced me at a 
critical period, when to have gone wrong would have meant 
contraction of life, if not degradation. While he was a man 
of limited literary information, he suggested books which I 
read with great profit. If I could place a monument over his 
grave, I would inscribe upon it : "They that be wise shall shine 
as the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as 
the stars forever and ever." 

At the Missionary Conference held in New Orleans in 1901 
Bishop Charles B. Galloway took a collection amounting to 
something over fifty thousand dollars for Soochow University. 



40 REMINISCENCES. 

I made a subscription to it. When the Bishop called my name, 
several persons whom I had never seen came forward and spoke 
to me. Among them was a very tall man, who said : "I want to 
shake your hand. Though I never saw you before, you are the 
cause of my going through college. I am the son of Reuben 
Hayes, who knew the history of your boyhood in Choctaw 
County, Alabama. I had to get my education in the face of 
difficulties. I was sometimes on the verge of giving it up. My 
father kept telling me about your persistence till you had gone 
through college. Your example gave me inspiration to perse- 
vere till I had done the same. I am now here to acknowledge 
my obligation to you and to say to you that whatever of suc- 
cess I may have had as a Methodist preacher in the Arkansas 
Conference I owe largely to you." Mr. Hayes should have 
gone behind me and acknowledged the debt to his godly father, 
who was instrumental in directing my youthful feet in the path 
that has led to whatever of success I may have been able to 
achieve. Mr. Reuben Hayes was neither rich nor learned, but 
he served his generation better than any other man I knew in 
my boyhood. He could be trusted with the most sacred things 
in life. Like Abraham, he taught his children to fear God and 
keep his commandments. He reared a large family of excellent 
people who are following in his footsteps. 

Another neighbor who moved in soon after Mr. Hayes was 

Mr. George S . He was a jolly good fellow, who seemed 

to enjoy life in all of its more trivial phases and was remark- 
able for two accomplishments: he was a noted country fid- 
dler and the best rifle shot I ever knew. He was in his native 
element at country dances and at shooting matches. He could 
so handle the violin as to run a crowd of dancers almost beside 
themselves. He was the biggest man in the country on such 
occasions. I was sometimes a visitor at his home and have 
heard him play, but I was told that it took a crowd to put him 
at his best. I guess I never heard him in all his glory, for I 
never attended a dance in my life. I was, however, indebted 

to Mr. S ■ for one accomplishment of which I was very 

proud. From him I learned to be an expert rifle shot, as 



REMINISCENCES. 41 

appears in my notes on hunting. I was so accurate a shot that 
I was able to gain all the prizes offered for the best shooting 

when I was a cadet in the University of Alabama. Mr. S 

was naturally a highly endowed man. He was not a bad man, 
but he did not take life seriously. He dismissed its most solemn 
responsibilities and gave himself up to having a good time. I 
was told that the latter part of his life was clouded with sorrow 
and disappointment, as every life must be in which passing en- 
joyment has been made the chief end. In order to attain our 
best we must set the highest ideals for our attainment. 



*&' 



"Not enjoyment and not sorrow- 
Is our destined end or way, 
But to act that each to-morrow 
Find us farther than to-day." 

Mr. John James was the brother-in-law of Mr. Hayes, hav- 
ing married his sister, Miss Susan Hayes. He moved into our 
neighborhood when I was about ten years of age. He bought 
up several small farms, entered a considerable body of public 
land, and built a frame house about a quarter of a mile from 
my father's. He cleared quite a good-sized plantation on two 
of the Ratcliff Creeks and began work as a prosperous farmer 
on a larger scale than any other man in the community ex- 
cept Mr. Allen Y . He was an educated Irishman with 

very little of the brogue and peculiarities of the "sons of Erin." 
He was six feet in height, of erect form, fine head, dark hair, 
large gray eyes — a striking personality. He evidently had a 
kind heart, but it was not manifested in any excess of senti- 
mental expression. I had a profound respect for him which 
amounted almost to fear. His kindly interest in me was such 
that my feelings would have risen to something like veneration, 
had he not marred my admiration by occasional indulgence in 
that form of dissipation which has blighted the lives of so 
many fine men. He was not only an able mathematician, but 
he was well read in English literature. I have heard it stated 
that he knew by heart many passages in Pope's translation of 
the "Iliad." When he happened to be in a jovial mood, I have 



42 REMINISCENCES, 

heard him repeat portions of "Tarn O'Shanter" and other 
poems by Burns. He had the only good hbrary in that part of 
the country. 

Being an excellent surveyor, he had contracts from the gov- 
ernment to survey and plat much of the public land of South 
Alabama. Before coming to our section he had accumulated 
considerable means. He owned six or seven negroes, who 
were just about as free as he and his wife were. I never knew 
him to show the least unkindness to any of his servants. He 
gave his slaves parcels of ground and at least half of every 
Saturday in which to cultivate their crops. Their cotton was 
ginned and packed at his gin and sold along with his, and the 
proceeds turned over to them as they called for it. 

He was a patriotic, public-spirited citizen, who took much 
interest in county, state, and national politics. He was a 
Whig in his party affiliation. I have heard him and Colonel 
Philip Gaines discuss national issues by the hour. In 1850 he 
was a candidate for the legislature as representative from 
Choctaw County. He was defeated by Mr. B. L. Turner, the 
Democratic candidate. It was reported to him that Mr. Wil- 
liam Nicholson, a Democrat and a personal friend of Mr. 
Turner, had circulated statements derogatory to his religious 
character. Mr. James was so disappointed at his defeat and 
so angered at the reported statements of Mr. Nicholson that 
he went to the latter's store and attacked him with a heavy 
walking stick. As soon as Mr. Nicholson could get out of the 
store, assisted by his clerk, he went to his house, about a. hun- 
dred yards away, got his double-barreled shotgun, which was 
loaded with buckshot, came back to about thirty yards of the 
store where Mr. James was standing, and called out to him, 
saying: "You attacked me in my own house. I am going to 
kill you." Mr. James simply looked at him, but never moved 
a muscle nor spoke a word. He could have stepped back from 
the gallery inside the door in which he was standing. Mr. 
Nicholson fired one barrel, striking him in the feet and ankles, 
causing him to drop to his hands and knees. He attempted to 
rise and was partly up when Mr. Nicholson fired the other 



REMINISCENCES. 43 

barrel, striking, him in the head and face, kilhng him instantly. 
His death created a great sensation throughout the whole coun- 
try. It was a matter of deep regret to all parties. Mr. Nichol- 
son was tried and acquitted on the ground of self-defense. 

Mr. James had five sons — Thomas, Daniel, John, Charles, 
and Robert — and one daughter, Mary. Daniel was near my 
own age and was my best friend. As he grew up he was sent 
to the noted school at Green Springs founded by Dr. Henry 
Tutwiler. Daniel used to tell me about the wonderful foun- 
tain of learning at Green Springs, which helped to stir my am- 
bition for an education. He used to lend me books from his 
father's library and encourage me to read. Daniel James was 
a fine boy. I never heard him use a vulgar or profane word nor 
knew him to be guilty of a base or immoral act. He was a 
handsome boy, whose appearance in manhood was marred by 
a wound received in the face during the war. After the war 
he was made probate judge of his county. He died in 1908. 

Thomas James assimied control of the plantation soon after 
his father's death. As is too often the case with young men 
who come suddenly into power, he failed to exercise that mod- 
eration which would have marked the wisdom of more mature 
years. I do not know anything that tests a young man more 
severely than to come suddenly into authority with plenty of 
money. On the other hand, no better fortune can happen to a 
youth than to be compelled to grow slowly into the possession 
of authority. The good fortune of Thomas James was, I 
think, his marriage to Miss Sara Whitlock, a beautiful young 
lady of the neighborhood. He moved to Mississippi and 
reared a large family of fine people. 

John, the third son, went to school a year or two with me at 
Pierce's Springs. He made a splendid soldier and was killed 
because he would persist, contrary to the advice of his friends, 
in raising his head above the breastworks at which the enemy 
were firing. 

Several years after the death of Mv. James Mrs. James 
married Mr. Leander Jenkins, several of whose children I shall 
ha^^e occasion to mention in the chapter on my education. Mrs. 



44 REMINISCENCES. 

James was an excellent woman, to whom I am indebted for 
numberless acts of kindness. She always treated me as one of 
her own sons. 

About the time that Mr. James moved to our vicinity Mr. 
Alfred Yates married Miss Martha Evans and built a frame 
house about two miles west of my father's. Mr. Yates had 
only a common school education; but he was a man of good 
natural ability, was public-spirited, and engaged in all the en- 
terprises of the neighborhood. He was a Royal Arch Mason, 
a Whig in politics, in which he was much interested, though he 
never ran for any public office. While not an orator, he was 
always ready to take part in public exercises, such as reading 
the Declaration of Independence, introducing public speakers, 
and performing any other services required. While he had 
never connected himself with any Church, he was ready to aid 
in Church enterprises and was, I believe, a regular attendant 
at Church services. He was a man of energy and industry, a 
successful farmer, and was accumulating property rapidly up 
to the time of the breaking out of the war. Mrs. Yates was, 
like her husband, interested in all the public movements in the 
neighborhood. As she had no children and owned a fine sad- 
dle horse, she spent a good deal of her time in looking after 
the welfare of her neighbors. Mr. Yates was considered a 
close business man who never wasted any money on trivial 
things. Yet, as will appear in these pages, he and his wife 
were very generous toward me. 

Another very interesting occasional visitor at our house, 
though not of our immediate vicinity, was Uncle Mosie Shoe- 
maker. He was a clean, bright man, quick, energetic, pious, 
public-spirited, and a great Baptist, who went to all the 
meetings and associations in the whole country for miles 
arcmnd. In passing, he and his wife, who rode horseback, 
always spent the night at onr house. He conducted family 
prayer when he was present. Though not a preacher, he still 
stands out in my memory as one of the best men I ever knew. 
He was a man of lively spirit and an incessant talker, though 



REMINISCENCES. 45 

his talk was always pure and without guile. On one occasion 
some person was inclined to challenge the correctness of some 
statement made by Uncle Mosie. A friend of his remarked: 
"O well, you know that any one who talks as constantly as 
Uncle Mosie makes mistakes sometimes." No one ever doubt- 
ed his sincerity and honesty. 

The last time I saw him I met him in the road one evening 
when he was returning from a meeting. He was so nearly 
blind that he did not know me until I told him who I was. He 
then struck me across the shoulder a hard rap with his riding 
whip, making some pleasant and affectionate remarks about 
my getting too big to recognize old friends. I wish all of the 
old acquaintances who live in the memory of those early days 
could come up with as pleasing and kindly recollections as 
Uncle Mosie Shoemaker. 

Now I have to record a recollection of a different kind. As 
has been stated, Mr. Dennis L — — came into our neighbor- 
hood and settled about a mile east of us. Tlie family consisted 
of himself, his wife, and one son about twenty years of age. 
They were Irish people who had lived sometime in Halifax, 

Nova Scotia, before they came to Alabama. Mrs. L was 

a kind-hearted woman in whom I saw nothing bad. Mr. 

L was very fond of whisky, though I never saw him 

"dead" drunk. John W. L , the son, was a young man of 

good intellect and considerable education, but he was very pro- 
fane and obscene. I have often wished that I could blot out 
all memory of his profane and obscene expressions and vile 
conduct. He afterwards professed conversion and became a 
Methodist preacher. In the estimation of some of the mem- 
bers of the Church, he equaled Dr. Thomas W. Dorman, the 
presiding elder, in his eloquence. But it was a kind of elo- 
quence that lacked the ring of deep sincerity. He soon aban- 
doned the ministry and went on the stage. Like the glare of an 
exploded skyrocket, he went out and was heard of no more. 

Innocent country life, like the Garden of Eden, is too often 
marred by the spirit of evil. It seems necessary that there 



46 REMINISCENCES. 

should be some place from which sin is excluded. This place 
is not found in the country. It is not found in the city. Only 
heaven is secure against the malign influence of the wicked, 
who must become fit for heaven or be annihilated or be con- 
fined in some prison house for the detention of the hopelessly 
incorrigible. 



CHAPTER IV. 

My Early Education — My Teachers: Mr. John James, Dr. A. J. Graham, 
Mr. James A. Kimbrough, and Dr. A. J. Allen — My Schoolmates in 
Dr. Allen's School — My First Attempt at Teaching— My Second Attempt 
at Teaching. 

A S already stated, my grandmother taught me the first 
•**• things I learned from books. My education in spelling 
and reading began when I was about six years old. From a 
Webster's blue-back spelling book my father taught me the 
alphabet. He continued to teach me until I was between eleven 
and twelve years of age. In the summer of 1846 I went to 
school three months to Mr. John James, who has been men- 
tioned in the preceding chapter. This was the first school that 
had been taught in our vicinity for several years. There 
had been a school sometime earlier, taught by an Irishman 
named Michael Hennessee. Mr. Hennessee taught the "three 
R's" very thoroughly, as was reported, by the lubrication of 
"hickory oil"; but it never fell to my lot to have any of this 
knowledge dispensed by Mr. Hennessee. 

As has been stated, Mr. James, my first teacher, was also an 
Irishman. He was now teaching a summer school for the 
benefit of his own sons and the other boys of the neighbor- 
hood, embracing an area some five or six miles in diameter. 
The school was taught in an old log residence about half a 
mile from Nicholson's store, on the Barryton Road and about 
three miles from our house and Mr. James's. Inside of the 
house there was a long table on which we wrote from copies 
set by Mr. James, who wrote a very neat running hand. He 
made our pens out of goose quills and sharpened them when 
necessary with a penknife which he kept for the purpose. If 
there were any such things as steel pens then, I never heard of 
them. 

There was a piazza in front of the house facing the public 
road, which ran about forty yards from the house. The teacher 

(47) 



48 REMINISCENCES. 

usually sat or walked on this piazza as he heard the lessons. 
We were at liberty to study out in the grove or anywhere, just 
so we had our lessons well prepared and were on hand prompt- 
ly when the class was called. The one thing above all else re- 
quired in this school was good lessons. The lessons must be 
learned. The penalty of idleness was the hickory freely ap- 
plied, a penalty I never had to suffer. Mr. James told my fa- 
ther that he was surprised to find me as far advanced as I was. 
He did not expect me to know anything. My father informed 
him that he had been teaching me at home for several years. 
I owe much to this beginning of study at home. I believe that 
if more parents were as much interested in the education of 
their children as my father was and would give as much at- 
tention to it, we would have less illiteracy. I sometimes thought 
it hard to be required to study in my odds and ends of time, 
especially when the other boys would come and call me out to 
play. I had to get the lessons first, and then I could play. 

Back of the schoolhouse in which Mr. James taught was a 
deep ravine, and about a hundred yards distant was a spring. 
It is amusing to think how very thirsty we got and how often 
we had to go to the spring. Hard study, especially studying 
out loud, as we frequently did, must be a very thirst-producing 
exercise. I have often observed since I have been a teacher the 
same tendency in pupils to go out for water. I learned in later 
years that this tendency is not altogether bad. It enables them 
to use the three remedies against disease once recommended by 
a celebrated English physician. On his deathbed he had his 
medical friends called in and told them that he had to go the 
way of all of his predecessors, but that he had the consolation of 
knowing that he would leave behind three of the best physi- 
cians that had ever been known among men. The doctors all 
drew near, hoping that the worthy three might be found of 
their number. They eagerly leaned over to catch the names 
from the lips of their dying friend : "Pure Water, Fresh Air, 
and Regular Exercise." 

My studies during the first summer session with Mr. James 
were spelling, reading, and writing. The spelling book was 



REMINISCENCES. 49 

Webster's blue-back. The readers were the New York Read- 
ers — First, Second, and Third. They contained excellent se- 
lections of prose and poetry. Mr. James was a good reader 
himself and paid particular attention to the reading of his 
students. I have often wished to see those old readers again, 
but have not been able to find a single copy. They seem to 
have gone with the past generation of men. 

The next summer, 1847, ^^r. James taught in a new school- 
house in a more central location, about two miles from us. 
During this session I began grammar and arithmetic. We 
used a new series of readers, just published, by Dr. W. H. 
McGuffey, of the University of Virginia. I was very much 
interested in grammar and reading, and everything moved on 
smoothly as far as I was concerned. Some of the children 
were tallow-faced and sickly looking. I think the trouble may 
have been caused by hookworms, though hookworms and mi- 
crobes had not yet been discovered. Some of the pale, sickly 
looking children were accused of "eating dirt," which was as- 
signed as the cause of their poor health. Mr. James was a man 
fertile in expedients. He had a large bottle filled with vine- 
gar, rusty nails, and I know not what else, and dosed the ca- 
daverous-looking children with this medicine every day after 
dinner. He called that class up in a row and gave each a 
spoonful. They improved very much under this treatment. I 
suppose my appearance was not such as to indicate the need of 
this remedy, as I was not subjected to an application of it. 

In the summer of 1848 my father died after a lingering ill- 
ness of more than a year. The management of the farm and 
the responsibility of making a living now devolved entirely 
upon me, as had largely been the case for more than a year. 
He was a quiet, good man, who had seen his most active days 
before I could remember. He did the best he could in educat- 
ing" his children. He did more personal work in teaching us 
than any other man I ever knew outside of the teacher's pro- 
fession. Without his persevering and painstaking instruction 
I could not have made as good a start in school as I did. He 
did not leave us any money ; but he left us the richest inherit- 
4 



50 REMINISCENCES. 

ance any man caii leave his children: the memory of a quiet, 
peaceful, and godly life. I shall never know how much I lost 
by not having his paternal care and guidance through the peril- 
ous years of boyhood. Since his death, in my fourteenth year, 
I have acted mainly on my own initiative. As I did not always 
act wisely, I am sure that I would have done worse but for the 
judicious counsel of good friends. Emerson said that two 
good angels guarded his youth — poverty and work. I had the 
same two guardian angels. I think it took more than these 
two to keep me from going to the bad. 

I was very much impressed at this time by Mr. James's kind- 
ness. He encouraged me to get lessons at night and go to his 
house and recite to him once or twice a week during the fall 
and winter. This help, with the use of his library, kept alive 
my interest in study. I had to work very hard on the farm 
during the day in order to make a living. I could not have 
gone to school even if there had been any. While looking over 
his library I found a copy of the early statutes of Alabama in 
which was recorded the charter of the State University. As I 
read it I had an anxious wish that I might some day be num- 
bered among its students. But this looked like an impossible 
dream hidden away among the mists of the unknown future. 

Dr. a. J. Graham, My Second Teacher. 

Largely through Mr, James's influence the people of the com- 
munity employed for the year 1848-49 a teacher by the name 
of Dr. A. J. Graham. Dr. Graham dressed well, wore a tall 
silk hat, and had the reputation of being very learned. But he 
had a temper that corresponded well with his red face and hair 
and sharp, aquiline nose. Under him I studied grammar, read- 
ing, spelling, arithmetic, and Mitchell's geography and atlas, 
a finely illustrated book for that day. This opened to my mind 
the wonders of the great world in which we live. 

Dr. Graham had two boys studying Latin — Thomas and Wil- 
liam West. That was my first knowledge that there was any 
other language than English. As I listened to the boys stand- 
ing up before Dr. Graham with wriggling hands and contorted' 



REMINISCENCES. 51 

features over the conjugation of the verb amahani, amahas, 
amahat, aniahamus, amdbatis, amabant (placing the accent on 
the last syllable), I think the language would have sounded as 
strange to Cicero or Horace as it did to me. The pronuncia- 
tion in Dr. Graham's school had far outrun the ancient Latin 
pronunciation and had not caught up with the modem Roman 
method. 

Owing to my mother's ill health and the necessity of making 
a crop, my attendance was very irregular through the session. 
I think I did not go more than two or three months, but I read 
and studied at home. 

During this year one striking event occurred at Christmas, 
when the boys "turned Dr. Graham out." He was not willing 
to give more than one day's holiday, and the boys wanted a 
week. On Christmas Eve morning we all went to the school- 
house before daylight, barred the door (there was only one), 
and waited for the Doctor to come. About eight o'clock he 
came riding up with his dinner bucket in his hand, hitched his 
horse as usual, and started toward the door. We all crowded 
around him and made known our request for a week's holiday. 
He flatly declined to grant it. As we persisted he became very 
angry and swore that he would not give it. He turned away 
from us abruptly and started to enter the door. When he 
found it barred, he gave it a hard kick. Abel Campbell, one of 
the young men, caught him from behind and lifted him off 
the doorsteps and, holding him around the waist, said : "Now, 
come on, boys, if you want a holiday," The leaders in the 
business told the Doctor that we would take him down to the 
branch and duck him if he would not grant our request. He 
still declined and clawed the skin off Abel's hand until it bled 
freely : but we told him that there was no use in resisting, that 
we did not wish to use any violence, but that we were deter- 
mined to have the holiday, and that we would duck him in 
the branch until he consented. After some parleying he relent- 
ed and agreed to give us the week. He very soon got in a good 
humor. When we opened the door, he called us all in and 



52 REMINISCENCES. 

made a little talk, saying that he had gotten mad and spoken 
hastily and requested us to say nothing about it. 

I did not enjoy the week's holiday, for I was afraid that Mr. 
James would disapprove of the whole proceeding. I did not 
care so much what Dr. Graham thought as I dreaded Mr. 
James's disapprobation. This prank would never have been 
attempted on Mr. James. There were not boys enough in 
Choctaw County to turn him out. He never yielded to any 
opposition nor quailed before any danger. In spite of his 
faults, my heart grows warm with admiration to this day over 
the memory of his manliness and his kindness. But for him 
and his library I might never have made my way to a college 
education. Sixty years after his death I looked in vain for his 
grave, though I remembered well its location. I would gladly 
have placed a lasting memorial over it. My gratitude to him is 
tempered with an emotion of sorrow. He was too noble to 
have had his sun blotted out at midnoon. 

Mr. James A. Kimbrough, My Third Teacher. 

For some reason Dr. Graham was not engaged for another 
year. During the summer of 1850 Mr. James A. Kimbrough 
taught the school, Mr. Kimbrough was a clean young man of 
fairly good English education. I was interested in my studies 
and received valuable help from him. I wish it borne in mind 
that I got all my early education either at home or in country 
schools during the summer months after the crop was laid by. 

Dr. a. J. Allen, My Fourth Teacher. 

Dr. A. J. Allen was my next teacher. He was a small man 
with one weak arm, from what cause I do not know. He had 
a fine head and face, keen black eyes, long hair tinged with 
gray and parted in the middle like Milton's, as shown in pic- 
tures. He was, I guess, between fifty-five and sixty years of 
age. He was a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. 
He was a scholarly man and a gentleman, whose only fault, 
so far as I knew, was the habit of drinking too much at times, 
though I never knew him to be under the influence of liquor 



REMINISCENCES. 53 

during school hours. It was always a mystery why so able and 
cultivated a man should be teaching a little country school out 
in the backwoods. I suspect that it was due to his one weak- 
ness, the love of drink. 

He had recently married a young wife about twenty years 
of age. They boarded at Mrs. James's, Mr. James having been 
killed the year before. I was a frequent visitor at the James 
home and had a good opportunity to become acquainted with 
the Doctor, so far as an ignorant country boy could know a 
well-educated man. He was kind enough to give me some di- 
rection in my reading. Among the first books he recommended 
was Scott's "Ivanhoe." He was fond of talking about "Tom" 
Jefferson and induced me to read some of Jefferson's letters 
which were in the library. 

My Schoolmates in Dr. Allen's School. 

After the crop was laid by in the summer of 185 1, I entered 
Dr. Allen's school, in the Jenkins neighborhood, about a mile 
and a half from home. This school was composed of both 
sexes and all ages from ten years up to grown young men and 
women. Among the young men were James and Joseph Jen- 
kins; among the larger girls were Misses Isabel and Mary 
Jenkins and Dolly Swann. James Jenkins was considered an 
advanced scholar. He had been attending school elsewhere and 
was studying algebra, on whose marvelous beauties he used to 
expatiate freely. He showed me how he could take two small 
letters {x and y) and expand them until the work would cover 
both sides of his slate. He said it was beautiful — a thing I 
could not understand then and, I suppose for lack of mathe- 
matical vision, I have not been able since fully to appreciate, 
though I have worked through several higher algebras, taking 
in the binomial theorem, theory of equations, and all. Joseph 
Jenkins dressed well, wore a tall silk hat, and seemed to appre- 
ciate his own beauty more than the beauties of algebra. 

My studies were arithmetic, grammar, geography, writing, 
and spelling. Neither in this school nor in those I had attend- 
ed before was I ever hurried. I did not have to cram to keep 



54 REMINISCENCES. 

up with any class, but worked at each subject until I thought I 
understood it. If I did not understand any part of a subject, 
the teacher was at hand always ready to explain. In those 
early schools I formed the habit of never feeling satisfied to 
leave behind me any part of a subject that I did not understand. 
I think this habit was one of the best things I acquired. 
We had spelling lessons daily, such as the latter-day teachers 
sometimes look upon with slight respect. We had parsing les- 
sons too, selected from Milton, Shakespeare, the Bible, and 
other portions of literature. We wasted some time on these 
exercises, no doubt ; but we learned to construct sentences and 
to appreciate the force of words. I do not know that I have 
ever considered this time lost, though some of it might per- 
haps have been more profitably spent in stimulating our minds 
to take a wider view of good literature. 

One of my schoolmates at this time was pretty Miss Isabel 
Jenkins, with dark brown hair, bright hazel eyes, fair skin, 
white teeth, and dimpled cheeks and chin. She was sweet, 
smiling, graceful sixteen; and I simple, susceptible, green sev- 
enteen. At first I only thought that she was neat, not pert, 
not forward, just modestly good-looking. I felt no special 
interest in her more than in the other boys and girls. Upon 
due acquaintance she had me "work her hard sums" and parse 
her difficult sentences. As a reward for these services she 
sometimes gave me a flower or an apple. She took pains to 
show in modest ways her appreciation of my ability and went 
so far as to express this to others who were kind enough to 
make it known to me. Not through any fault of hers, of 
course (as her winsome ways were natural), she grew more 
beautiful and fascinating, until I began to feel that there never 
could be another girl so lovely. But, owing to my bash fulness 
and her artfulness, we continued without progress or regress 
for two or three months, when it gradually became painfully 
evident to me that she was as much interested in two or three 
other fellows as she was in me and that she had too much sense 
to think of waiting for a penniless plowboy to attain to man- 
hood and to acquire a competency. This discovery was a great 



REMINISCENCES. 55 

disappointment. It did not break my heart, as I thought it 
would, but it did break the spell of Cupid's dream. It stung 
my pride and stirred my ambition. Instead of committing sui- 
cide or drowning my disappointment in dissipation, I deter- 
mined to rise out of my unsatisfactory condition. The only 
way I saw of doing this was through education. I was fond 
of reading and study, but I think there was a motive other than 
simple love of knowledge that stimulated me to make the effort 
in the face of seemingly insurmountable difficulties. As it 
turned out, I had a long, hard road of fifteen years of school, 
college, and war experiences to travel over before I could, with 
any reason, assume the responsibility of taking care of a fam- 
ily. Even if Miss Isabel had been sufficiently interested (I am 
glad she was not) to think of waiting fifteen years, I suspect I 
would have grown from her unless she had been inspired with 
other aspirations than most young people entertain in their 
days of changeful susceptibility. For since I came to myself 
I have never had more than a passing fancy for any woman 
who did not possess more than ordinary culture and force of 
character. I am glad that my good angels of poverty and 
work enabled me to pass through the susceptible period of 
youth so that I did not become the drudge of circumstances of 
my own improvident making; that I have been left free to 
place myself under elevating influences which, I believe, have 
not been exercised altogether in vain. I hope that Miss Isabel 
found the man of her choice, that her married life was a happy 
one, and that she was ready to answer the final summons which 
came to her years ago. 

As the spring of 1852 came on I had to stop school and go 
to work to make a crop. In addition to corn, fodder, potatoes, 
and other produce, we made a small crop of cotton, which I 
sent along with a neighbor's load of cotton to Mobile. With 
part of the proceeds I bought the following books : Milton's 
"Paradise Lost," Young's "Night Thoughts," "Newton on the 
Prophecies," "Mrs. Heman's Poems," and "Lord Chesterfield's 
Letters to His Son." I selected these books upon the rec- 
ommendation of my friend Mr. Hayes, who had consulted 



56 REMINISCENCES. 

Rev. Paul F. Stearns about what books I should buy. I read 
all of these books very attentively and thought I understood 
them. I guess it is a good thing that young people have some 
conceit, for it would be paralyzing to turn upon them all at 
once a full knowledge of their verdancy. 

My First Attempt at Teaching. 

In the fall I was induced by Mr. Hayes to teach a little 
school in the community. When I told him that I doubted my 
qualifications for teaching, he informed me that Mr. James had 
spoken to him so favorably of my ability that he was sure that 
I could teach the school, which would not be composed of any 
advanced students. He gave me a copy of a contract in Mr. 
James's handwriting, from which I wrote out some articles of 
agreement between myself and the patrons and entered upon 
what was destined to be my profession, as will appear in this 
history of my life. I lived at home and for the first month col- 
lected the magnificent sum of seven dollars and twenty-five 
cents ! The wonder is that I did not quit the business of teach- 
ing forever. I trust I may be pardoned for saying that two 
of my life principles have been to persevere in whatever I 
have undertaken and to keep my contracts. The following 
months I did somewhat better in the way of collections. 

Among the pupils of this my first school was Miss Fannie 
Hayes, the oldest daughter of my good friend Reuben Hayes, 
a girl of twelve years, a modest, ladylike girl, who set a fine 
example to the younger students. After the lapse of sixty- 
two years, I received a letter from her signed "Mrs. Fannie H. 
Cochran," in which she said that she was prompted to express 
her appreciation, before it became too late, of what I had done 
for her in the long ago. I know that my instruction was im- 
mature, my manners those of an unpolished country boy ; but 
if I conducted myself in such a way as to have caused this 
good woman's respect and gratitude to live through all the 
wrecks of these sixty-two years, I am deeply grateful. I am 
sure that our friendship will not end with the few fleeting days 
that may remain to us here. 



REMINISCENCES. 57 

In the spring of 1853 I went about three months to Dr. Al- 
len, who had moved to another neighborhood five miles from 
my mother's. I walked this distance every morning and eve- 
ning over a very hilly road. During this term I studied ele- 
mentary geometry and surveying, in addition to some of the 
studies I had formerly gone over. While the course in survey- 
ing was very elementary, I found I had learned enough about 
the subject to do plain surveying quite accurately when I had 
occasion to put it into practice. I wish to acknowledge my 
obligation in this connection to Dr. Allen, who soon passed out 
of my knowledge. 

My Second Attempt at Teaching. 

During the summer and fall of 1853 I taught another school 
in our vicinity. Some of my pupils had been my fellow stu- 
dents under Dr. Graham and Mr. Kimbrough. In this school 
I had two or three young ladies older than myself. In justice 
to them I wish to state that their demeanor was excellent and 
that I never had a school in the course of fifty years' experience 
that gave me less trouble. This must have been due to the 
character of the pupils, for it certainly was not due to my na- 
tive or acquired ability as a disciplinarian. With the proceeds 
of this school I made my preparation to enter the academy that 
had recently been established at Pierce's Springs, Mississippi, 
about eight miles from where we lived. I entered the academy 
the first of January, 1854. In order to economize as much as 
possible, I walked from home on Monday mornings and re- 
turned on Friday evenings. 



CHAPTER V. 



PIERCE S SPRINGS. 



Mr. George Frederick Mellen — Mrs. Alice Hayes Mellen — Experiences at 
the Springs — A Mob — How to Destroy Fleas — My First Original 
Speech. 

piERCE'S SPRINGS was located in the eastern part of 
-■■ Clarke County, Mississippi, about two miles from the State 
line and five miles northwest of Nicholson's store, now Melvin, 
Alabama. Just below the Springs there is a streak of fine prai- 
rie land extending from Choctaw County, Alabama, westward 
into Mississippi. On these lands a number of wealthy planters 
had settled. Among them were the Evanses, the Harrells, the 
McLendons, the Bedwells, and others. This was a typical 
neighborhood of the "Black Belt." They were an industrious, 
enterprising, and hospitable people, whose wealth was the re- 
sult of their own thrift, and among them class distinctions 
were not so sharply drawn as they are now in either the North 
or the South. 

I was through all my school and college life associated with 
the sons of this class of people, and among them I found many 
of my best friends. They had their faults, but their faults 
were not on the side of petty meanness. There was a chival- 
rous spirit among them which gave tone to the old Southern 
civilization. It is an error to say that they were domineering 
over their poorer white neighbors. I never saw any indica- 
tions of this haughty spirit that has sometimes been attributed 
to them. This charge was overworked on account of the ha- 
tred of slavery among many Northern people just before the 
war and has been emphasized for a generation since. 

Two or three miles north of this strip of prairie country 
there begins a portion of country covered by long-leaf pines in 
which there is a mineral spring. Near this spring Mrs. Harvey 
Pierce had established a girls' school in the year 1852. This 
gave the name to the place. She was a native of Ohio, a worn- 
(58) 



REMINISCENCES. 59 

an of superior ability and character. Her school was drawing 
patronage from all that part of East Mississippi. This caused 
a number of wealthy and enterprising people to build homes 
around the Springs. Among these were Colonel B. F. Estes, 
Rev. Paul F. Stearns, Mr. Thomas Hicks, Mrs. Dumas, Mr. 
J. M. Calhoun, Mr. John H. Evans, Mr. John West, and oth- 
ers. These people, together with the community in the adja- 
cent prairie belt, needed for their boys a school similar to Mrs. 
Pierce's school for girls. They organized a board of trustees 
to establish a male academy. Mr. Duke Goodman, a commis- 
sion merchant of Mobile, who had formerly lived in this sec- 
tion, was one of the influential members of the board, for 
whom the school was named Goodman Institute, though it was 
generally designated by the name of Pierce's Springs. 

Mr. George Frederick Mellen. 

The trustees engaged as the first principal Mr. George Fred- 
erick Mellen, who had been teaching for two or three years at 
Mount Sterling, Choctaw County, Alabama, another typical 
Black Belt community. Mr. Mellen had made a fine reputation 
at Mount Sterling, and his coming to the Springs in the fall of 
1853 drew patronage from Alabama. A new light had dav/ned 
on that section such as had never shone there before. 

It is true more or less everywhere that the man or woman 
at the head makes the school. This was emphatically true at 
Pierce's Springs. Mrs. Pierce made the girls' school. George 
Frederick and Seth Smith Mellen made the male academy the 
most noted school that has ever been in that part of East Mis- 
sissippi. This and Dr. Tutwiler's school at Green Springs, 
Alabama, were in a class of high schools in the South before 
the war that, in the opinion of Dr. E. A. Alderman, Presi- 
dent of the University of Virginia, have hardly been equaled 
except, perhaps, in Scotland. They were noted for the large 
number of boys they sent to college in proportion to the size of 
the school. 

Mr. George F. Mellen was a native of Massachusetts. He 
was born at Brookfield, prepared for college at the celebrated 



6o REMINISCENCES. 

Wilbraham Academy, and graduated from Wesleyan College 
(now University), at Middletown, Connecticut. When he 
went to the Springs he was about thirty years of age, six feet 
tall, a little stoop-shouldered, with fine head, dark hair, clear 
hazel eyes, prominent Roman nose, projecting upper front 
teeth which generally showed a little, clear complexion, with 
clean-shaved face, and always neatly dressed — altogether a 
striking personality. You would take him in any crowd to be 
more than a common man. The first time I ever saw him was 
at Kizer Hill Church, just before I entered his school. At the 
conclusion of the sermon the preacher called on him to make 
the closing prayer. This he did in a rich, mellow, distinct 
voice. One sentence of the prayer was a quotation from the 
twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, which has been ringing in my 
mind ever since: "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the 
golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the foun- 
tain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust 
return to the earth as it was : and the spirit shall return unto 
God who gave it." 

However favorably you might be impressed with his appear- 
ance at first, you had to be associated with him some time to 
understand and appreciate his real character. He was a fine 
scholar for his age, well versed in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Eng- 
lish, and mathematics. He kept up his Hebrew studies daily, 
as well as the languages which he taught. He did not spare 
himself in his work for his students. I may have had some 
better teachers in the mere details of instruction; but for get- 
ting students to take a comprehensive view of a subject and 
inspiring them with noble purposes I have not seen his supe- 
rior. He had been a student under Stephen Olin at Middle- 
town. He must have caught some of Olin's spirit which 
prompted Alexander H. Stephens to say, after being his pupil 
at Franklin College, Georgia, that he was more indebted to Dr. 
Olin for his interest in literature than to all his other teachers 
combined. 

After all, inspiration is the greatest quality in a teacher. 
Many teachers can Instruct well, but not all can inspire great 



REMINISCENCES. 6i 

and noble purposes in the young. Without inspiration, educa- 
tion can never yield its best fruitage. Thomas Arnold could 
create noble visions in the minds of his students. Stephen Olin 
and Mark Hopkins could do this, and George Frederick Mellen 
could do it. If the academy at Pierce's Springs had closed with 
his principalship, still it would have been the scene of a worthy 
effort. Mr. Mellen never troubled us with many precepts and 
set rules. It was his custom on opening school in the morning 
to read something from the Bible and offer devout prayer in a 
full, earnest tone of voice. We were rather a godless set of 
youths and did not stop to think much about his prayers; but 
we were generally respectful to him, for we loved him. More 
religion gets into a boy through the devout teacher he loves 
than through any merely formal instruction that can be given. 
On the other hand, a powerful excuse is given for being irre- 
ligious when a brilliant and popular teacher practically ignores 
the subject. 

My studies were "Davies's Elementary Algebra," "Brown's 
English Grammar," "Parker's Natural Philosophy," a book on 
chemistry whose author I cannot recall, "Whately's Logic," 
and original compositions and declamation. I well remember 
my first effort at declamation. I had memorized a short speech 
from "Lovell's Young Speaker." I knew it perfectly, but had 
never practiced speaking it aloud. When my name was called, 
I took my stand on the platform and began. When I had spo- 
ken two or three sentences, my voice had a strange sound, 
which caused the next sentence to leave me, and all was blank. 
Not a word could I recall. After an awful pause of some 
moments I stumbled down to my desk, buried my face in my 
hands, and wished for a hole in the floor big enough to let 
me fall through. When I recovered from my mortification, I 
made a resolution that I would never leave the stage again un- 
til I had finished all I had to say. I believe this resolution has 
been of great benefit to me. It gave me confidence in myself. 
I have never failed to be able to say in some fashion all that I 
had to say on any given occasion. My friend Leo Shackelford 
was of service in hearing me rehearse my next speech for 



62 REMINISCENCES. 

public declamation. He was a good speaker and gave me en- 
couragement. 

While I got a great deal out of these subjects, which were 
all new to me, I got a great deal more out of Mr. Mellen. It 
has taken more than sixty years to find out how much I did get. 
Indeed, I believe it will take a longer period than this life to 
reveal it all. 

Mrs. Alice Hayes Mellen. 

Mrs. Alice Hayes Mellen deserves mention in this connec- 
tion, as she was Mr. Mellen's assistant in composition and oc- 
casionally in recitations. She was a brilliant and finely edu- 
cated woman, but somewhat eccentric. She was an excellent 
writer. After leaving the South she wrote a book, I am in- 
formed, which I never had the pleasure of seeing. I owe her 
a debt of gratitude for her special interest and encouragement. 
On one occasion when we had some public exercises she and 
Miss O. C. DuBose had been descanting on the characteristics 
of some of the students, among them Newton Phillips, my 
roommate, and myself. As Phillips and I came out of the 
house the two ladies met us at the door, and Mrs. Mellen em- 
barrassed us all by stating publicly that Miss DuBose had said 
that Phillips was handsomer than I. She quickly stepped up to 
me, brushed back my hair, and said : "Stand up straight and 
show that you are a better-looking man than Phillips." This 
was one of her eccentric freaks, at which no one was surprised. 

Experiences at the Springs. 

A few of my experiences during my first year ai the Springs 
will be in place here. I boarded with Mr. John H. Evans, who 
had five students boarding in his family. Miss Lizzie Kent (a 
niece of Mrs. Evans), Miss Lizzie Evans (sister of Mr, Ev- 
ans), and a Miss Williams were students in Mrs. Pierce's 
school. Newton D. Phillips, brother of Mrs. Evans, and I 
were students in the male academy. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were 
fine people and made our home very pleasant. 

The young and inexperienced are apt to be self-confident and 



REMINISCENCES. 63 

to feel able to rise above their moral and social environment. 
They should know that there is danger here. During this first 
year at the Springs there were a number of us about the same 
age, from eighteen to twenty years. Some of these were high- 
ly gifted youths of warm and generous natures. We were all 
susceptible to the charms of friendship; but some of the most 
gifted ones, according to the custom of the times, had formed 
a taste for strong drink. This was intensified by the fascina- 
tion that the social element supplies. At that time I was not 
settled in my religious principles. I was more open to tempta- 
tion than I would have been with settled religious convictions. 
My sympathies had entered deeply into the lives of these genial 
friends, and before I knew it I found that they were beginning 
to lead me to lengths I did not wish to go. I saw that I had to 
control them, which was impossible; or to break with them, 
which was not so easy to do when I had no other sympathetic 
circle to enter; or to drift with them down the rapidly increas- 
ing current toward the falls. I almost shudder now to think of 
how perilously near I came to being sucked into the maelstrom 
and swept with the crowd into some reckless deed that might 
have destroyed confidence in me at that critical time and have 
marred my future prospects for an education. I am thankful 
that my good angel came to my rescue again. I told my room- 
mate that he might do as he pleased, but that, as for me, I was 
going to act for myself in the future and that I was not going 
to be led by my friends. He said : "You are right, and I will 
go with you." This resolution was a shield against similar 
temptations to engage in reckless conduct. It has sometimes 
made me feel rather lonesome to stand with the minority and 
in more than one instance by myself, but I am sure that it has 
been the safer plan. I have thus maintained my self-respect 
and have not lost any of the respect of my fellow men that has 
been worth maintaining. 

It makes me sad to know that all that crowd of gifted boys 
are gone. Some of them who might have been burning and 
shining lights in the world went to premature graves, over 
which black Azrael hovers. I would not mention this but for 



64 REMINISCENCES. 

the hope of erecting a beacon of warning to the boys of a new 
generation. Let them know that they must stand for them- 
selves or drift with the current. Standing against an evil cur- 
rent will make men; drifting with it will make driftwood on 

the stream of time. 

A Mob. 

Mrs. Pierce had in her family a girl by the name of Shaw, 
whom Mr. Pierce had taken from the orphan asylum at Vicks- 
burg under certain stipulations that she was to be kept in his 
family and educated until she became of age. It appeared that 
she had written to her brother, a young fellow about eighteen 
years old, that she was being mistreated by the Pierces. The 
young man came and tried to take his sister away. The Pierces 
refused to let her go, claiming that they were under contract to 
keep her until she became of age. The young man went around 
in the community and stirred up a good deal of prejudice 
against the Pierces, which he could easily do, as they were 
economical, industrious people, and required more work of 
their children and dependents than some of the Southern people 
were accustomed to do. The boys of the male school proved 
to be inflammable material for this business, especially as Mrs. 
Pierce did not allow them all the privileges with her board- 
ing pupils that they wished. Led by some of the more hot- 
headed citizens, they marched to the female academy and de- 
manded the surrender of Miss Shaw. Mr. Pierce indignantly 
refused. The leaders threatened to enter his house and take 
her by force. He declared that if they should do this he would 
prosecute them for unlawful entrance into his premises. 
Things were coming to a very critical stage when Mr. Mellen 
and some of the more cool-headed citizens induced Mr. Pierce 
to agree to let the girl go under protest, with proof that he was 
compelled to do so in the interest of peace. This evidence, he 
said, he wanted in case he should be sued by the trustees of 
the orphan asylum for failure to carry out his contract. Two 
of the more reckless boys took the girl and her brother In bug- 
gies to Slater's Landing, on the Tombigbee River, thirty miles 
away. 



REMINISCENCES. 65 

At first I sympathized with the Shaws, but was not in favor 
of violent measures. The thing annoyed Mr. Mellen very 
much. There was a great deal of feeling for a while; but 
after it became fully known that the girl was not abused, but 
was treated reasonably well and was getting more education 
than she would have gotten anywhere else, the excitement 
quieted down, and the Pierces were justified in the estimation 
of the public. This was my first experience as to what an ex- 
cited mob will do. They are as apt to do the wrong thing as 
the right ; and when they do the right thing, they are sure to 
do it in the wrong way. 

How TO Destroy Fleas. 

Another incident which occurred that session about the last 
of May or first of June was published in many papers through- 
out the country as a "sure remedy for destroying fleas." The 
schoolhouse had been built the year before out of large split 
pine logs about twelve or fifteen inches in diameter. The split 
side was hewn smooth, and the cracks between the logs were 
ceiled with dressed planks running parallel with the logs. The 
house was set on blocks about two' feet above the ground. 
The hogs had been sleeping under the house at night for some 
time without attracting attention and had generated more fleas 
than I ever saw in one place. Our pants would be almost black 
with them when we passed close to it. Some genius suggested 
as an eff'ective means of destroying the fleas that a layer of 
leaves be placed underneath and set on fire. The fire extended 
from the leaves to the pine splinters. The house was soon in 
flames and in the course of an hour or two in ashes. We never 
saw any more fleas in that place. 

My First Original Speech. 

The remainder of the session was conducted in an unoccu- 
pied dwelling house. After a session of ten months, the school 
closed the latter part of July. The teachers had given a faith- 
ful review of the studies passed over during the year. The 

5 



65 REMINISCENCES. 

closing exercises of two days were held under a large brush 
arbor about a hundred yards from the spring. We were ex- 
amined on each subject by the teacher, then the book was hand- 
ed to any one in the audience who felt inclined to ask any ques- 
tion on the subject under examination. Not many people cared 
to ask questions, but one young physician who had been to 
college ventured to show how much he knew by contrasting his 
knowledge with our ignorance. Of course we could not an- 
swer all of his questions, but it was my good fortune to be able 
to answer everything except one problem in algebra. Public 
examination was a new experience. I had studied very hard, 
my mind was clear, and the excitement put me at my best. 

On the afternoon of the last day the older boys delivered 
their original speeches. Mine was on Christopher Columbus. 
I had read Irving's "Life of Columbus" during the year. The 
subject suited me in one respect; for, like Columbus, I was 
making my first voyage over the unknown sea of original 
speech-making. After I had done my best on its composition, 
I was not pleased with my effort; but Mrs. Mellen, who had 
charge of the preparation of our speeches, assured me that it 
would do with some corrections. After she had criticized it, I 
thought so too. 

I have often recalled my appearance on that occasion. I do 
not think I had on more than ten dollars' worth of clothing 
from head to foot. My pants were made out of blue checked 
cloth that had cost about two dollars and a half. They had 
been washed and had shrunk until they were too tight and too 
short and made my big feet look still bigger. I wore a long 
linen coat that had cost about two dollars and a half, I knew 
very well that my dress was not adequate to the occasion ; but 
my money had given out a month before, and I did not know 
how to borrow. I had never learned that art. It would have 
seemed too much like begging to have asked any one to lend 
me a dollar. I think now that my independence was rather too 
intense. I am sure, though, that it was better to err on that side 
than on the opposite. Young people are often too much dis- 
posed to get help. This disposition saps the foundation of in- 



REMINISCENCES. 67 

dependent manhood and womanhood. Self-denial is a bitter 
medicine, but it is a fine tonic. 

When my speech was called, I had to stand out in full view 
of several hundred well-dressed people. I felt, as every young 
man should feel, that there was something more in me than ap- 
peared on the outside. This feeling gave me inspiration. I 
finished my speech without hesitation or embarrassment. I 
think my good angel must have been with me, for my future 
education depended on the success of those two days, as will 
appear later. 

When our speeches had all been delivered, Mr. Mellen an- 
nounced that his brother. Professor S. S. Mellen, would have 
charge of the school the next year, that he would not be our 
teacher any more, and in a few simple words of advice and as- 
surance of his abiding interest in us, he bade us farewell with 
evident but well-controlled emotion. I shall never forget the 
scene of that July afternoon. The rough, hard-hearted boys 
broke down and cried like children. It was not so much what 
Mr. Mellen said as what Mr. Mellen was. I have seen girls 
moved with intense emotion on parting from their teachers and 
friends ; but I have never seen boys so moved with deep feeling 
that lasted beyond the hour. 

Mr. Mellen went North and entered the Theological Semi- 
nary at Andover, Massachusetts, to prepare for the ministry. 
While there he wrote me two kind and encouraging letters, 
which were like messages from another world after his death, 
which occurred the following year. "He being dead yet 
speaketh." 

As we went out from under that brush arbor, which had 
been the scene of the last two days, Colonel Alfred Yates, who 
has been mentioned, met me in a very cordial manner and said : 
"John, I was mighty glad to hear you answering all those ques- 
tions. I am proud of your success. What are you going to 
do now ?" I replied : "I am going to work to make some mon- 
ey, then I am going to school again." "Well," he said, "it's a 
pity for you to stop now. You ought to go on to school." I 



68 REMINISCENCES. 

answered : "Yes ; but I have no money, and I owe Mr. Evans 
for a month's board, which I must pay as soon as possible." 
"Well, get you a school and make as much as you can during 
the summer. If you can pay for your board next session, I 
will pay for your tuition and will wait on you until you are 
able to pay me." 



CHAPTER VI. 

My Third Attempt at Teaching — The Beginning of My Religious Life — 
Professor Seth Smith Mellen — Joining the Church — Religious Experi- 
ences — School at Choclahana. 

I WENT home and taught the first pubHc school ever taught 
in our neighborhood. The first general public school law 
for Alabama was enacted by the Legislature early in this year, 
1854. The session of my school lasted three months, and I 
was paid eighty dollars for my services. 

During the summer while I was teaching this school great 
changes were beginning to take place in my spiritual being. I 
had always intended to be religious. I never knew the time 
when I was troubled with notions of infidelity. Two or three 
years before this I had read, at the suggestion of my friend 
Mr. Hayes, "Nelson on Infidelity." The book interested me, 
but had made no particular impression on me that I could re- 
call. I did not intend to be wicked. I had simply grown god- 
less and impenitent through neglect in cultivating any positive 
piety. I had been prayerless. I had not been a Bible reader. 
I had never heard any preaching that impressed me. I had 
left the garden of my heart to the thorns and weeds of sin, 
and they had taken it. I saw that I was not getting any better, 
but was growing worse. My condition alarmed me. I decided 
to change my course. I found an old copy of the New Testa- 
ment and began to read it carefully. I began to try to pray, 
but the heavens seemed like brass. I was bound in the chains 
of sin. My state was expressed in the seventh chapter of Ro- 
mans. Sometimes my regret would be less poignant and the 
"fearful looking for of fiery indignation" temporarily relieved. 
But in the main my spiritual sky was beclouded. This convic- 
tion came on me without any human agency, so far as I knew. 
I had been attending no religious meetings. I had been reading 
no religious books for some time. I believe that it came from 
God's Spirit, making me sensible of my condition and wooin 
me to a better life. 

(69) 



g 



70 REMINISCENCES. 

One other thing during this summer session has been dis- - 
tinctly remembered. It was the clearing up of the subject of 
algebra. I had studied Davies's Elementary Algebra the pre- 
ceding session, but it had never become clear in my mind. 
Now I had a pupil, Robert Swann, who had studied Day's 
Algebra through equations of the first degree under Dr. Allen. 
Robert and I had only one book. When he was not using his 
book, I studied ahead of him and was surprised and delighted 
to find how clear the subject became from this review in a dif- 
ferent book. This experience taught me the important lesson 
that when a subject is not clearly understood it is well to study 
another author who presents the same matter in a different 
form. 

When I returned to Pierce's Springs on November i6, 1854 
(as Professor S. S. Mellen's record book shows), I found the 
new frame academy completed. Seated in the principal's chair 
was Professor S. S. Mellen. While I owe a debt of gratitude 
to quite a number of people, this man, during my five years' 
association with him, gave me more assistance in the way of 
instruction than any other man. It is therefore proper that I 
should make special mention of him. . \ 

Professor Seth Smith Mellen. v^ 

Seth Smith Mellen was born in Pelham, Massachusetts, 
February 7, 1821. He was prepared for college at Wilbraham 
Academy, and graduated with third honor from Williams Col- 
lege in the class of 1843 under the presidency of Dr. Mark 
Hopkins. When I first saw Mr. Mellen, in 1854, he was thirty- 
three years of age, was about five feet and eleven inches in 
height, of superb form, fine head, black hair which slightly 
curled, Roman nose and face, and large, dark, expressive eyes 
• — altogether one of the handsomest men I have ever seen. He 
was a more brilliant man than his brother, with good talent for 
public address. I have heard it said by those who knew him 
well that he could have made a brilliant success in any of the 
professions, if his tastes had led him in that direction. He was 
a modest man who did not like publicity. He was a teacher 



REMINISCENCES. 71 

because he loved teaching. To any one who has no taste and 
aptitude for teaching it is an irksome business, but to one who 
loves teaching it is full of inspiration. The live teacher finds 
pleasure in the acquisition of the knowledge of the subjects to 
be taught, but the greatest pleasure of all is experienced in 
witnessing the development of his students as they are intro- 
duced into the kingdom of knowledge, with all the possibilities 
that open before them. 

Aristotle's pleasure in teaching Alexander the Great proba- 
bly exceeded any that the conqueror ever had in his brilliant 
campaigns. Dr. Arnold's delight in the opening mind of Ar- 
thur P. Stanley was no doubt equal to any the great preacher 
ever felt in his ministrations in Westminster Abbey. Dr. 
Olin's satisfaction in the mental growth of Alexander H. 
Stephens was doubtless equal to any that the noted statesman 
ever experienced in his devotion to national affairs. 

Dr. S. S. Mellen was a teacher because he preferred teaching 
to all other occupations. He was a man of such fine business 
judgTnent that with the modest earnings of his school he 
dressed well, lived in comfort, gave his children the best ad- 
vantages for education, and accumulated by judicious invest- 
ments in the course of a long life a competency for his old age. 
If he had given his whole time to the accumulation of wealth, 
he could easily have amassed a fortune. He chose the wiser 
course. He reared his children better than if he had been a 
mere money-maker. His name will be embalmed in the affec- 
tionate remembrance of hundreds of his pupils when all mate- 
rial investments that he could have made will be forgotten. 
Well done, faithful teacher! You have your reward. You 
made no claims to greatness, but hundreds will honor you, 
while others who tried to climb the heights of fame will pass 
out of the memory of their fellow man. You made no loud 
professions of piety, but your works do follow you in the bet- 
terment of mankind. 

Dr. Hopkins had evidently exercised a great influence over 
him. He never grew weary of speaking of Dr. Hopkins' ser- 
mons and addresses and in telling how they were prepared on 



y2 REMINISCENCES. 

fragments of paper scattered over his desk and how, when 
they were brought together and fused into a consistent whole 
and sent forth from the great soul of Dr. Hopkins, they were 
marvelous, life-giving productions that caused President Gar- 
field, in emphasizing the necessity of having a great man at the 
head of an institution of learning, to make the extreme state- 
ment that "the best university is a Dr. Hopkins on one end of 
a log and a student on the other." Hearing these addresses so 
highly praised, I bought and read with great interest and profit 
several volumes of his works after I became a teacher. 

When I returned to the academy in the fall of 1854, I knew 
that I would be behind in my studies, as the school had been 
running six weeks. Mr. Mellen quickly saw what would be 
best for me. He handed me a Davies's Bourdon, Davies's 
Legendre, Andrew's Latin Grammar and Reader, and Bul- 
lion's Greek Grammar and Reader — all new subjects to me, 
except that I had studied elementary courses in algebra and 
geometry. I felt sure that I could not take so many new stud- 
ies. But he was firm, and I had nothing to do but to go to 
work or rebel against his decision. H he had left me to choose 
my own studies, I should not have taken Greek and carried it 
on evenly with my Latin, English, and mathematics. It is 
possible that I should never have gone to college. In those 
days the curriculum was inflexible. It required an even amount 
of Greek, Latin, English, and mathematics for entrance and 
for graduation in any male college. After pursuing these sub- 
jects for several years, I was well prepared to enter the sopho- 
more class in any college of that time. But I am anticipating. 
I must go back to the session of 1854-55. 

When I began the study of Greek and Latin, so different 
were they from anything that I had ever tried to learn that I 
thought I should never be able to fasten their forms in my 
mind. When I thought I had them thoroughly learned, they 
would slip out of my memory. It took several months of the 
most uninspiring drudgery to get their elements fixed in my 
mind for good and all. 

During this year I studied exceedingly hard and took very 



REMINISCENCES. 72, 

little exercise. The change from a very active life to sedentary 
habits was too sudden. My friend Mr. Evans had moved to 
his plantation ; and I had gone to board at another place where 
the fare was plain, poorly cooked, and without any variety. 
That horrid bogie called indigestion began to take possession 
of me. In addition to my hard studies and poor fare, my spirit 
was clouded and depressed on account of my unsatisfactory 
religious state. My naturally strong constitution began to give 
way. About the middle of the year my money gave out, and 
I was about as miserable as it was possible for a mortal to be. 
I went to the man with whom I boarded and told him that I 
had no money to pay my board any longer and that I was going 
to stop school and go to work. He said : "O, Colonel Yates 
has paid your board for the remainder of the year." This re- 
lieved me of the financial embarrassment, but it did not relieve 
my physical and spiritual depression. 

I told Mr. Mellen that I thought I had better stop school, that 
I did not think I was doing much in my studies, that my life 
was a burden, and that I did not expect to live long and knew 
I was not prepared to die. The big-hearted man clearly took 
in my case. He asked me to get up soon every morning and 
take a long walk with him, a thing he was in the habit of doing 
before breakfast. On these walks he told me that I was doing 
very well in my studies ; that whether I lived twenty years or 
eighty ought not to be any concern of mine, for length of days 
was in the hands of God ; and that, as for being ready, the best 
way to secure that preparation was to take care of my health 
and do my duty faithfully as it arose day by day. His effort 
to get my mind off myself and to raise my faith to a firmer 
trust in God, as He is to be found in doing our duty faithfully 
in the common affairs of life, was just what I needed. 

Joined the Church — Religious Experiences. 

In the spring of 1855 the Methodist people of Pierce's 
Springs planned to have a protracted meeting. Rev. Green- 
berry Garrett, whose obituary I wrote seventeen years after- 
wards, was the presiding elder and preached the opening ser- 



74 REMINISCENCES. 

nion from the text, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they 
shall see God." At the close of his sermon he said : "If there 
is a sinner in the house who wants to find God, let him come 
forward and make it known." I was on the back seat of the 
academy, in which the services were held. As I had before- 
hand resolved to do, I rose and went forward and knelt at his 
feet. I felt that there was a good man standing between me 
and an angry Deity. If I could only have looked beyond the 
good man through the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin 
of the world" and have caught a vision of the infinite compas- 
sion of the Father, who wills that all should come to Him and 
live, I know now that my gloom would have vanished and that 
my sky would have been cleared of all its clouds. But my faith 
could not yet rise to that height. I went through all the serv- 
ices of the meeting without ever having my faith rest firmly in 
God alone. I was looking at my past sins or to my own manu- 
factured righteousness or to my fancied imitation of other peo^ 
pie's experiences. 

I think that about twoscore of young people professed 
conversion and joined the Church on probation. The good 
people tried hard to instruct me, but they could not ; they only 
confused me. I had several months before made up my mind 
to leave off everything that I knew to be wrong and to try to 
do everything that I believed to be right. When the preacher, 
Rev. W. C. Turner, called for applicants to join the Church 
on probation, I gave him my name, believing that this was 
moving along the line of the resolution I had already formed. 
But I was not satisfied with my religious state. 

When the session of 1855 closed, I found that I had suc- 
ceeded in my studies better than I expected. I had prepared 
an original speech that I do not remember much about. Mrs. 
George F. Mellen had written a play for our school called 
"The Modern Socrates." The chief characters in the play 
were Socrates, Xanthippe, and Alcibiades. Socrates was as- 
signed as my part in the play. I was somewhat reluctant to 
take it, as I had to come on the stage barefooted and in very 
old and homely apparel to suit the character of the old Grecian. 



REMINISCENCES, 75 

At Mr. Mellen's instance, however, I acted the part, and the 
play went off very well. At the close of the exercises I met my 
friend Colonel Yates and said to him: "I am indebted to you 
for a year's tuition and several months' board." He replied : 
"That's all right. Do you want to go again next year?" I 
told him : "I should like to." He answered : "Go ahead. I will 
5ee you out." 

I spent the vacation at home, helping my brothers on the 
farm. I attended another protracted meeting at Kizer Hill 
Church, during which my brother Joel passed through a strik- 
ing change in his religious life, I went through all the exer- 
cises, but I experienced no extraordinary change such as I was 
looking for. Indeed, some of their highly wrought states of 
excitement had a tendency to confuse me. 

I returned to the Springs at the opening of the session, In 
October, 1855, and entered upon my studies with renewed 
zeal. I was becoming very much interested in Latin and Greek. 
During this year and the year or two following Vergil and 
Horace, Xenophon and Herodotus were growing wonderfully 
fascinating. It seems as if I could enter into the life of these 
ancient people and live it over again with them. I was sur- 
prised to find how much they were like ourselves. Human na- 
ture had not changed much in two thousand years. I was now 
richly repaid for all the drudgery I had done in laying a foun- 
dation in the classics. I shall never cease to be thankful that 
I had a superior teacher to start me in these subjects. In addi- 
tion to reading and carefully translating the classic authors, 
we had daily exercises in translating back and forth from the 
original languages into ours. 

In the spring of 1856 Dr. D. M. Dunlap, the pastor of the 
Methodist Church, called for those who had joined the Church 
on probation the year before to come forward and be re- 
ceived into full connection. Out of about forty, only two. 
Miss Maria Pope and myself, presented ourselves, were bap- 
tized, and received into full connection. The others had all 
either moved away or lost their interest in the Church. I am 
sure that It was well with Miss Pope, for she was a splendid 



yd REMINISCENCES. 

young woman who went to her reward through the dreary 
road of consumption about three years after this. She had 
been engaged for two or three years to my friend Dr. Leonidas 
Shackelford, who insisted on her marrying him almost on her 
deathbed. As for myself, I know that I did the right thing in 
coming into full connection with the Church. Its communion 
and fellowship have been of great service in guarding me 
against lapses in conduct and in keeping alive my interest in the 
subject of religion. I needed all the help I could get while I 
was trying to work out the problem of salvation for myself. 
I read the Bible regularly and such other religious books as 
fell in my way. I think that Rev. Paul F. Stearns, a local 
preacher, gave me valuable help at this time. 

I felt that I could not let the matter of my personal relation 
to God remain in an unsatisfactory state. I prayed almost con- 
stantly, even at the desk in the midst of my studies. I fasted 
regularly every Friday. I retired for secret prayer whenever 
opportunity was presented. At times these exercises would 
quiet my mind temporarily, but the old gloom would settle back 
over my spirit. I was sometimes tempted to give up the whole 
thing as an attainment not intended for me. But in this retrcn 
grade course I saw no hope of peace and security. Out of a 
deep sense of my need I renewed my efforts day after day, 
sometimes spending whole afternoons in the woods in great 
agony of prayer and supplication. One afternoon in May, 
1856, during the evening recess, I retired, as usual. As "into 
the woods my Master went, clean forspent, forspent" under 
the weight of the world's sin, so into the woods I went, worn 
and weary and weighed down by the guilt of my own sin. As 
I was in the act of kneeling in my accustomed place, mentally 
saying, "O Christ, I commit my all to thee; I have no other 
hope," suddenly I felt the load lifted from my heart. For this 
I devoutly thanked God and returned to the schoolhouse with a 
buoyant spirit and an elastic step. I retired that night feeling 
some apprehension lest my old gloom should settle back on my 
spirit as it had often done before. When I awoke the next 
morning, my mind was clear and serene. My old sense of sin 



REMINISCENCES. 77 

was gone! As I walked alone to the schoolhouse with my 
books under my arm the clouds had a soft radiance that I had 
never seen in them before. They seemed to declare God's love. 
This frame of mind lasted for weeks. 

My spirit became clouded again when through distrust I lost 
my faith in God's love. Several months afterwards and at 
intervals during the next year or two I fell into sore and pain- 
ful doubts. During this clouded state of mind I heard a good 
old Scotch local preacher, who was teaching school out in the 
country, preach a sermon from the text : "Let us hold fast the 
profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful 
that promised." This text has been a sheet anchor to my faith 
through all these years. Let all know that we not only "should 
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to 
the saints" as a doctrine ; but that we should earnestly strive to 
keep alive in ourselves a personal faith in the ascended Christ, 
"who ever liveth to make intercession for us." 

School at Choclahana. 

Through the kindness of Mr. Benjamin Evans I learned that 
the people over in Choctaw County, at a place called Choclahana, 
a few miles below Pushmataha, wished to employ a teacher for 
three summer months. I applied for the place and secured it. 
As it was a public school, I had to stand an examination for a 
certificate to teach in the public schools. As soon as the acad- 
emy closed I went to Butler, the county seat of Choctaw, and 
stood my examination under Rev. Mr. Burgess, a Presby- 
terian clergyman and County Superintendent of Education. 
He examined me in spelling, reading, grammar, rhetoric, and 
arithmetic. I asked him to examine me in Latin, Greek, alge- 
bra, and geometry, as I was fresh in those subjects; but he 
declined to do so, saying that I would not need these subjects 
in the public schools. He wrote out a certificate in due form 
and remarked as he handed it to me : "This will entitle you to 
teach in the public schools of the State forever." This remark 
was prophetic. I have never been required to stand another 
examination for a teacher's certificate. 



78 REMINISCENCES. 

During this session at Choclahana I boarded with Cap- 
tain WilHam Evans and walked to school, a distance of 
about two miles. I have a distinct recollection of two incidents 
during this time. One morning as I was passing by old Mr. 
Presley's gate I saw him coming out to meet me, wringing his 
hands and crying as if his heart would break. I supposed that 
something dreadful had happened. He began telling me in an 
agony of distress that the godless way we were living at Cap- 
tain Evans's was breaking his heart. We went to bed, he said, 
without any family prayers or recognition of God's providence 
over us. I was very much surprised and disturbed at the old 
man's distress, for I suspected that his mind was out of bal- 
ance. When I got home that night, I stated the occurrence to 
Captain Evans. He broke out in a big laugh, saying: "Old 
man Presley was drunk. He never has a spark of religion 
until he gets drunk ; then he is the most religious man you ever 
saw." 

One day two of my schoolboys had a fight. One of them 
was the son of Mr. Sikes, a member of the Board of Trustees, 
the other the son of a man named Hurst. I gave both boys a 
whipping for violating the rule that prohibited fighting. This 
happened on Friday. I thought no more of the matter until 
Sunday afternoon, when Captain Evans told me that he feared 
I would have trouble with Mr. Hurst; that Hurst was very 
angry because I had whipped his boy ; and that he was a high- 
tempered, unreasonable man and had declared that he was go- 
ing to whip me. Captain Evans assured me that I had done 
right and that the trustees would sustain me, but he thought 
I would have trouble with Hurst. On Monday morning I 
went to school feeling a good deal of concern in regard to 
the outcome of the day. I began the morning session as usual, 
and in a short time I saw three persons coming around the 
head of a hollow the way the Hurst boys always came. I said 
to myself: "I guess I am in for a difficulty, but I am not going 
to take a whipping if I can help it. I will keep cool and try to- 
reason with the man and show him, if possible, how indispen- 
sable it is to maintain discipline in a school." There was lying 



REMINISCENCES. 79 

under the writing desk a piece of plank about a yard long and 
about an inch thick. I thought: "If I cannot reason with him 
and he insists on attacking me, I will defend myself with this 
piece of plank." Just then three boys entered. Along with the 
two that had been attending was a younger brother. They 
spoke very pleasantly and said : "Papa has sent you another 
boy." So ended the anticipated collision. I was very much 
obliged to Mr. Hurst for letting me off so lightly and for say- 
ing in act, though not in word, that he had not lost confidence 
in me. I never knew why he had changed his mind. I suppose 
that, as sometimes happens with high-tempered people, his fury 
had burned itself out and left his mind clear to see that I was 
in the right. This was the only trouble I had during that 
session. At the close I was paid one hundred and twenty-five 
dollars. I returned to the Springs about the first of November, 
1856. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Debating Society — Elected Assistant Teacher — Burial of Mr. Pierce — Miss 
Virginia Shaw, May Queen — Political Speaking — Fourth of July — Trip 
on Horseback — First Trip to Mobile. 

WE had a debating society from which we derived much 
benefit in the way of stimulation to good reading and the 
acquisition of faciHty in original, offhand expression. Among 
our best debaters were Leo Shackelford, James Smith, William 
Smith, Newton Pliillips, Thomas West, Mims Walker, Mac 
Walker, William Henry, Adin McNeil, and Hiram Slay. The 
finest debater we had was Leo Shackelford. He was quick at 
repartee, witty, sarcastic, eloquent. So long as Shackelford re- 
mained in the school he was uniformly chosen first, and it gen- 
erally fell to my lot to be chosen first on the opposite side. As 
well as I remember, he and I were always pitted against each 
other in debate. While it was against our rules to indulge in 
personalities, we were as severe on each other's arguments as 
we knew how to be. We never did our best speaking until our 
blood got warm enough to make us careless about how roughly 
we used each other's arguments. I never could speak my best 
until after Shackelford had torn my arguments to shreds and 
made them look very insignificant. I generally had the advan- 
tage of the closing speech. I regret that such debating societies 
seem to have gone out of fashion. 

Shackelford, who could have made a splendid advocate at the 
bar, studied medicine after leaving school, became a division 
surgeon during the war, and died about 1890 in Meridian, Mis- 
issippi. James Smith died from the effects of a wound received 
in battle. Newton Phillips studied medicine, became a physi- 
cian of some note, and died a few years ago in Atlanta. Thom- 
as West studied medicine and, after practicing a few years, 
became a minister and was a presiding elder in the Missis- 
sippi Conference for a number of years. He died some years 
ago. Mims Walker survived the war, became a successful 
farmer, a senator from Marengo County in the Alabama Leg- 
(80) 



REMINISCENCES. 8i 

islature, and died a few years ago at his home, in Faunsdale, 
Alabama. Mac Walker was wounded in the war, had his leg 
amputated, and died from the effects of it. I have lost sight 
of William Henry, Adin McNeil, and Hiram Slay. 

Elected Assistant Teacher. 

About the middle of the year 1856-57 the academy had 
grown too large to be taught by one teacher, and the trustees 
were compelled to employ an assistant. Mr. Mellen recom- 
mended me for the place. The trustees were willing to em- 
ploy me; but, as they were paying the salaries of the teachers, 
they did not wish to pay me much. I demanded fifty dollars a 
month and the privilege of reciting as many lessons with the 
advanced classes as I could prepare. The trustees debated the 
question a day or two and finally came to my terms. Before 
the end of the session I had saved money enough to pay Colo- 
nel Yates the sums he had paid out for me the two preceding 
sessions. He accepted the principal, but the interest he would 
not take. 

The next year Mr. Mellen took the school on its merits and 
engaged me as his assistant, allowing me one-third of the net 
proceeds. We ran the school on this plan through the scholas- 
tic years 1857-58 and 1858-59. My share of the income was 
about six hundred dollars a year. Out of this I had to pay my 
board, make up for the indifferent quality of my clothing in 
the past years, pay my brother Joel's expenses in the academy 
for two years, and assist my mother while she lived. While 
things moved on in rather a monotonous way during my last 
three years at the Springs, it may be of interest to mention 
several occurrences. 

The room in which I taught was an ell to the main building 
of the academy. About twenty-five of the younger boys were 
assigned to me in this room. Mr. Mellen told me that he ex- 
pected these boys would test me and charged me not to let them 
run over me. When the first offenses arose, I used the switch 
freely (I now think too freely) ; but it was a question that had 
to be decided, whether I or the boys should rule. During the 
6 



82 REMINISCENCES. 

year 1910 I met two excellent gentlemen who were boys in that 
room, Mr. V. M. West, of San Antonio, Texas, and Mr. Rufus 
Gavin, of Alabama. They were very respectful and bore tes- 
timony to the fact that I was master in that ell room at Pierce's 
Springs, which I could not have been if I had not had a good 
backer in the principal. As I grew older and my dignity be- 
came less sensitive I almost entirely abandoned punishment with 
the rod, even among boys. I am not quite sure that the whip- 
ping post can be entirely done away with in a boys' school, but 
I am sure that it ought to be kept well in the background. 

Burial of Mr. Pierce. 

In the winter of 1857 Mr. Harvey Pierce died. Mrs. Pierce 
was anxious to have her husband buried according to the rites 
of the Church. Her school could furnish appropriate music 
for the occasion, but there was no preacher accessible to read 
the burial service. In compliance with Mrs. Pierce's wishes, I 
read the burial service used by the Presbyterian Qiurch as we* 
laid him away under the solemn pines which were to sing his 
requiem. Mr. Pierce had come South and settled in these piney 
woods, I think, in quest of relief from a pulmonary trouble. 
Like so many who have fled from "consumption's ghastly 
form," he found relief in the grave. 

Miss Virginia Shaw, May Oueen. 

On the first day of May, 1857, the students of Mrs. Pierce's 
school elected Miss Virginia Shaw May queen and chose me 
to perform the part of archbishop in crowning her. Miss Shaw 
was a beautiful girl and was as modest and lovely in character 
as she was handsome in person. I felt the dignity of the occa- 
sion and did my best to measure up to it. Whatever might be 
said of the archbishop and his part of the performance, I am 
sure it can be truthfully said that there never was a more beau- 
tiful May queen nor one that sat more gracefully on the throne. 
I hope that her life has been as free from sorrow as her girl- 
hood was fair and full of good omens. 



REMINISCENCES. 83 

Political Speaking. 

In the ante-bellum days we had political speaking of a sort 
that I have never heard since. During one of these campaigns 
in Mississippi Colonel O. R. Singleton and Colonel W. A. Lake 
were running for Congress, and Mr. Alex Steele was running 
for the Legislature. They spoke in the academy, and we had 
a great day. Colonel Singleton made a brilliant speech, setting 
forth the superior advantages that would accrue from the suc- 
cess of the Democratic party. Colonel Lake spoke on the great 
advantages that would come to the country from the adoption 
of the principles of the Whig party. They were followed by 
Mr. Steele, who drew a poetic picture of the commonwealth of 
Mississippi reflected in her broad and placid "Lake" over which 
no little "Singleton" vessel should be authorized to sail. 

Colonel B. F. Estes, whose memory ran back into the flush 
times of Mississippi, took great pleasure in relating the won- 
derful political contests and feats of oratory in those days of 
the giants. A. G. Brown, Henry S. Foote, and S. S. Prentiss 
were noted men of that time. According to popular estimate, 
as well as the opinion of such men as Daniel Webster and Ed- 
ward Everett, Prentiss was the greatest natural orator that ever 
appeared in Congress. Prentiss was a small man with a large 
head and chest and one lame leg, on account of which he al- 
ways carried a walking cane. In one of his political campaigns 
he spoke in a town where there was a menagerie on exhibition. 
He arranged to stand on the cage of the lions while he was 
speaking. He went on in an inimitable strain of eloquence, 
describing the great calamities that would follow from the 
adoption of the policies of his political opponents. Just as he 
was reaching his climax he ran his cane down into the lions' 
cage, rousing them and causing them to set up a furious roar- 
ing, joined by all the other animals of the menagerie. This he 
construed into a sign of the coming storm of popular indig- 
nation if the principles he advocated should be defeated. 

While Colonel Estes was a great admirer of Prentiss as an 
orator, he said that Prentiss had ruined more young men In 
Mississippi than all the other public men combined, because 



84 REMINISCENCES. 

Prentiss could carouse all night and go into the courthouse or 
on the stump the next day and eclipse all other men by his be- 
witching oratory. Many young men, therefore, caught the fal- 
lacious idea that the way to glory was through the saloon. 
From the example of his brilliant genius, coupled with his 
irregular habits, the State reared a generation of dissipated 
young men who could imitate him only in his faulty traits and 
fatal weaknesses, to which he himself fell a victim at the early 
age of forty-two. 

Fourth of July. 

In July, 1857, we celebrated the "glorious Fourth" by read- 
ing the Declaration of Independence, singing patriotic songs, 
and making speeches that stirred the souls of those who deliv- 
ered them. On this occasion my friend Phillips and I made 
speeches. I do not remember much about his speech, but mine 
portrayed the perils of Washington's army crossing the Dela- 
ware and traced the footsteps of his soldiers through the snow 
stained by the blood that oozed from their bare feet. Those 
were stirring times when we were cultivating patriotic senti- 
ments that flowered forth from the heroic actions of our Revo- 
lutionary fathers. We made much of the Fourth before the 
war. I think the cultivation of a patriotic spirit of a very 
intense kind bore fruit in the heroic deeds of the Confederate 
army a few years later. No doubt the same thing was true in 
regard to the Federal army. No people can be great who do 
not keep alive a spirit of patriotism. 

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay." 

Trip on Horseback. 

During the vacation of 1857 Newton Phillips, Zeke Crocker, 
and I decided to take a trip on horseback to Vicksburg in order 
to see the Mississippi River. These young men were class- 
mates and intimate friends of mine. Phillips's mother lived 
some thirty miles west of Pierce's Springs. Crocker was from 
Macon, Georgia, and had followed Mr. Mellen to Mississippi 



REMINISCENCES. 85 

to be a student in his school. PhilHps used one of his mother's 
horses, Crocker rode Mr. Mellen's horse, and my friend Colo- 
nel Yates lent me a fine, nimble-footed black mule that was 
noted for its good wind and rapid gaits. We carried our 
clothes in saddlebags, an article I have not seen for many years. 
We made a stop of a few days at Mrs, Phillips's and attended 
a protracted meeting in the neighborhood conducted by the 
Baptist people. During one of the morning services the preach- 
er called on me to lead in prayer. I was surprised and some- 
what excited, thinking that I was a stranger in the community. 
I responded to the request as best I could, as it was according 
to my previously formed purpose to stand by my Christian 
convictions at all times and in all places, a thing I would advise 
all young Christians to do. 

When we reached Brandon, twelve miles east of Jackson, 
Phillips was taken violently sick with fever. We had to stop 
there and wait for his recovery, which required about two 
weeks. As soon as he was out of danger I went over to Ray- 
mond, about fifteen miles west of Jackson, to visit my aunt, 
Mrs. Jones, who had moved there some years before. This was 
the last time I ever saw her or any of her family. This was 
also my first and last visit to the capital of Mississippi, which 
was not then an imposing city. 

On my return to Brandon I found Phillips able to travel. As 
the weather was intensely hot and he was still weak, we decid- 
ed not to attempt to go any farther west. So we failed to see 
the great "Father of Waters" at that time. But we had a most 
enjoyable trip riding leisurely through the country. The hos- 
pitality of the Southern people before the war was sufficient to 
meet all demands. People's houses were always cheerfully 
opened to us and generally without any charge for us or our 
horses. I wish that I could see that old-time hospitality come 
back. I may say here that I never knew in those ante-bellum 
days anybody to be turned away who applied for a night's 
lodging. This was the fashion not only with the rich; it was 
so in the homes of all. If a charge was made, it was moderate. 

On our return we left Phillips at his mother's, and Crocker 



S6 REMINISCENCES. 

stopped at Pierce's Springs. My mule had behaved admirably 
all through this journey of several hundred miles; but, mule- 
like, it took a crazy freak while I was riding quietly along the 
road about two miles from home. It began rearing and pitch- 
ing and humping its back until the saddle got down on its neck, 
and finally I went over its head into the middle of the road. 
The mule then stood perfectly still and seemed to be well satis- 
fied with the feat it had performed. I had long prided myself 
on my good horsemanship and was inclined to attribute the fall 
to the defect of the saddle girt. I remounted and rode home in 
a very quiet manner. The next day I went to return the mule to 
its owner. It proceeded finely until I got within about three 
hundred yards of Colonel Yates's house, when it pretended to 
be awfully frightened at a hog, turned suddenly on its hind 
feet, and began plunging down the slant of a hill. This per- 
formance was kept up until the same thing happened as on the 
day before, with this difference, that I had a much longer fall 
over the mule's head down the hill. I struck the ground on my 
breast, breaking the force of the fall the best I could with my 
hands. I rose to my feet quickly ; but found that I could not 
breathe, it seemed to me, for a minute or two. This was the 
first time I had ever had the breath knocked out of me. It was 
no pleasant feeling not to be able to breathe. On recovering my 
breath I mounted and rode leisurely to the house with the con- 
ceit knocked out of my fancied ability to ride any kind of an 
animal that wore a saddle. The psalmist says : "A horse is a 
vain thing for safety." I know that a mule is. 

First Trip to Mobile. 

In the latter part of this summer I made my first trip to 
Mobile, which had been familiar to my ears from my earliest 
recollection as the big place from which all the nice things 
came. Settled by the French under Bienville in 1702 at 
Twenty-Seven-Mile Bluff and moved to the present site in 
1711, it had remained stationary in size for over a century. In 
1813 it had only five hundred inhabitants; in 1819, when Ala- 
bama attained her Statehood, it had fifteen hundred; in 1830 it 



REMINISCENCES. 87 

had over three thousand; in 1840, twelve thousand; in 1850, 
twenty thousand; in 1857, nearly thirty thousand. This was 
then considered a phenomenal growth ; but the city had all the 
natural advantages of location that could be desired. It had 
the only seaport in the State. It had the two navigable rivers 
reaching out like long arms into the eastern and western por- 
tions of the State. Except for a narrow strip in the Tennessee 
Valley and a little strip bordering on the Chattahoochee, Mobile 
was the emporium for the entire territory of Alabama. The 
wonder is that the city did not grow more. Compared with its 
natural advantages, it has not kept pace with the times. Dur- 
ing the four decades from i860 to 1900 it grew very little. 
This was due to three things : the prevalence of epidemics of 
yellow fever, the intensely conservative spirit of the business 
men, and the building of railroads throughout the country, that 
gigantic enterprise which makes and destroys towns, changes 
the currents of trade, and shifts the centers of population. The 
growth of Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham through the 
influence of railroads has diverted trade from Mobile. 

When I first visited the city, in 1857, what impressed me 
most was the multitudinous swarm of mosquitoes that filled the 
air like the Egyptian plague of flies, even more deadly than 
the Egyptian pest. The very next year the city was visited by 
one of the worst epidemics in its history, originating, as has 
since been proved, from these mosquitoes. This epidemic lasted 
until frost, which did not come until late in December. The 
fever killed thousands O'f people in and around the city, extend- 
ing up the river as far as Choctaw County, and created the 
greatest consternation all over the country. As medical science 
has discovered a remedy against this pestilence. Mobile is re- 
lieved of this barrier to its progress. Its citizens during the 
last two decades have shown a commendable spirit of enterprise. 
But many Alabamians who feel an abiding Interest In the pros- 
perity of Mobile believe that its people can never build up a 
noble city upon the liquor business as a prominent source of 
revenue, nor can they support a morally elevating system of 
education on a basis that is demoralizing in all of its tenden- 



88 REMINISCENCES. 

cies, nor can they cut themselves off from the rest of the State 
in its best sentiments for law and order without doing harm to 
the whole of Alabama and in the end to Mobile itself. The 
same may be said in reference to Montgomery and Birming- 
ham. 

On my first trip I visited the public parks, Government and 
Dauphin Streets, took a drive on the noted Shell Road, made 
my purchases, and returned home, proud that I had seen the 
greatest city of my native State and had taken my first ride on 
a railroad. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Mother and Brothers — Mrs. Susan Huntington (Bush) Mellen — Going to 
College — Dr. George Frederick Mellen — John Parker and the Erosophic 
Society. 

WHILE I knew that my mother's health was feeble, I did 
not know that the end was near. Early one morning in 
January, 1858, a message came to Pierce's Springs announcing 
that she was dead. She had departed suddenly, while I knew 
not of her going. It has always been a source of profound re- 
gret that I was not with her in her last hours. We buried her 
beside father and grandmother in the old family graveyard, 
near Puscus Bridge. 

Some men have had more celebrated mothers, but none more 
true. If she had been educated and well informed in the 
world's literature, she might have impressed my boyhood more 
than she did. She left South Carolina when she was too young 
to have received much education. She grew up in this country 
at a time when school advantages were few and poor. In some 
sparsely settled neighborhoods there were no schools of any 
sort; besides, Mrs. Gorham's widowhood and straitened cir- 
cumstances must have made it difficult for her to support her 
family, though I never heard this mentioned as a ground of 
complaint. A brave heart beat in her bosom which could face 
the hardest conditions and yet be cheerful. The same spirit 
dwelt in my mother, who, without any enlightenment from 
school culture, bravely fought the battle of life. 

I did not willingly give her trouble. I never felt easy when 
I was away from home unless I had told her where I was going 
and how long I might be gone. But her real worth did not 
appear to me then. I wish now that I had had filial insight 
enough to see qualities of the highest kind shining out through 
her untiring industry, her unshaken patience, her inflexible 
fidelity, and her decision of character as she endured all things 
without one word of complaint. As I move down the stream 

(89) 



90 REMINISCENCES. 

of time toward the boundless sea and look back upon her bent 
form, "it comes to me o'er and o'er" that it will require a lon- 
ger measuring line than time can furnish to measure her moral 
stature. O mother, when I remember thee spinning at the 
wheel or plying the loom and still hear thy cheerful voice 
sounding in my ears, I know that the diamond in thy character 
which was not polished to shine in this muddy mine of earthly 
toil shines forth in its true brilliancy in another sphere! I 
have learned many valuable lessons from the highly educated 
and have congratulated myself on this good fortune; but I 
have never learned so inestimable a lesson from all of my eru- 
dite teachers combined as I learned from my mother's example 
in her daily round of toil looking for no reward but the smile 
of God. 

"As once upon her breast 

Fearless and well contented I lay, 
So let her heart, on Thee at rest, 
Feel tears depart and troubles fade away." 

My Brothers. 

My brother Joel was two years younger than I. He was 
always a good boy. When he was about nineteen years old, he 
felt deeply the need of a change in his inner life. He seemed 
in the deepest distress for a time; but when his faith did grasp 
the ground of his salvation, his countenance was perfectly se- 
rene. In speaking of this change that had so suddenly come 
over him and had so powerfully impressed his imagination, he 
said : "I saw Him when he forgave my sins." He lived in this 
serene faith until he died, in November, 1859. At the time of 
his death I was a student in the University of Alabama. 
Rev. Wiley Thomas, who conducted his funeral, said : "Of the 
two brothers who have been members of our Church, one has 
gone to graduate from the University of Alabama, and the oth- 
er has graduated into heaven." He had spent two years with 
me at Pierce's Springs and then taught school until his health 
failed. On my recent visit to Choctaw County I stayed all 
night with Mr. J. R. Land, of Melvin, whose wife was once a 



REMINISCENCES. 91 

pupil of my brother's. She bore testimony to his fine rehgious 
character. 

During my visit in 1910 to the old cemetery, where father, 
mother, Joel, and grandmother were buried more than half a 
century ago, I found nothing to mark their last resting places. 
Out of a piece of durable Georgia marble I had made a tomb- 
stone, upon which is inscribed this memorial : 

Drury Massey, 
Vashti Massey, 

Joel Massey, 

Ann Gorham. 

They obeyed the divine call to "do justly, and 
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." 

My friend Mr. J. R. Land kindly placed this over their graves 
in March, 191 1. 

My brother Drury was four years younger than I. He 
attended school in the neighborhood for several terms, but 
seemed more interested in business than in education. Near 
the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Twenty-Third Ala- 
bama Regiment, commanded by Colonel Frank Beck, of Cam- 
den. He served with this regiment through the Mississippi 
campaign. After the fall of Vicksburg his command was unit- 
ed with the Army of Tennessee. He was killed at the battle 
of Resaca, Georgia, which was fought on the 14th and 15th 
days of May, 1864. As the Confederate army was retreating, 
he was left on the battle field and, like so many others, sleeps in 
an unknown grave. I knew not of his death until informed 
sometime afterwards by members of his command. He bore 
the reputation of being a good soldier. WTiile he did his duty 
as a soldier of his country, I cherish the hope, which I have al- 
ways entertained in regard to my other relatives, that he was 
a good soldier of the cross and that, when he passed over the 
river, he found rest "under the shade of the trees" of life, 
whither the immortal Stonewall Jackson had gone on May 10, 
1863, just one year before. 

I quote here, as expressive of my feeling, Father Ryan's la- 



92 REMINISCENCES. 

ment over his brother, David J. Ryan, who was killed and 
buried on the battle field : 

"Thou art sleeping, brother, sleeping, 

In thy lonely battle grave. 
Shadows o'er the past are creeping; 
Death, the reaper, still is reaping; 
Years have sv^rept, and years ^re sweeping 
Many a memory from my keeping; 
But I'm waiting still and weeping 

For my beautiful and brave." 

In the fall of 1858 I had a serious attack of chills and fever 
that kept returning periodically until I was reduced to a very 
low state of health. Through the kindness of my friend Colo- 
nel B. F. Estes I was taken to his home, two miles in the coun- 
try, and most tenderly cared for until I was well enough to 
return to work, I shall always gratefully remember those days, 
rendered so bright and cheerful by the exhaustless store of an- 
ecdotes that the Colonel was fond of telling and by the delicate 
ministries of Mrs. Estes and her daughter, Miss Margaret. 
They have all long since passed from the ministries of earth. 
They made the world brighter by their generous hospitality 
and unselfish services to the sick and the homeless. "Peace be 
to their ashes and blessing pronounced on those who care for 
the sick and take the homeless in !" 

Mrs. Susan Huntington Mellen, 

On the 24th day of August, 1858, Mr. S. S. Mellen was mar- 
ried to Miss Susan Huntington Bush, of Westfield, Massachu- 
setts. As I had a pleasant home in her family during the year 
1858-59, and as she thought fit to hold me up to her son in his 
boyhood "as a model worthy of all imitation," it is appropriate 
that I should make honorable mention of her. She was born in 
Whately, Massachusetts, November 30, 1830. She came South 
as a teacher in Faunsdale, Alabama, where Mr. Mellen met her 
in the hospitable home of Mr. Charles Walker. She was a 
lovely woman, who adorned every station she filled in her pas- 
sage to the better land. 

In the summer of 1859 she was sick nigh unto death. Mr. 



REMINISCENCES. 93 

Mellen was in great distress on account of her condition. He 
and Dr. John Mcintosh, the attending physician, desired to call 
in Dr. Council Wooten Moore, a noted physician, who lived 
near Twitchell's Mill, twelve miles south of Pierce's Springs. 
Mr. Mellen asked me to go for Dr. Moore as quickly as possible 
and instructed me not to return without him. It was a very hot 
day in July. In my anxiety I gave the poor horse an unmerci- 
ful ride. Wlien I reached Dr. Moore's I had the good fortune 
to find him at home, but getting ready to leave. Before dis- 
mounting I told him my business and was greatly disappointed 
when he informed me that it would be impossible for him toi go. 
I told him that Mrs. Mellen was desperately ill and that Mr. 
Mellen was in distress and had directed me not to return with- 
out him. As I dismounted from the jaded horse I said with a 
determination which I meant to carry out: ''Doctor, I am not 
going back until you go!" After a few moments' deliberation, 
he replied : "Well, come in and get dinner and let your horse 
rest. I will go." Mrs. Mellen recovered and lived many years. 
What effect my determination had in her case I do not know, 
but I have always felt glad that I made this detennined effort 
in her behalf. 

Going to College. 

Toward the close of the scholastic year 1858-59 I had to 
take into serious consideration whether I should let my educa- 
tion stop where It was or try to crown it with a collegiate 
course. As stated on a former page, my scholarship had a 
good foundation, but was very incomplete at the top. It was 
like the well-laid foimdation of a house with the upper stories 
and most useful and ornamental parts left unfinished. I was 
aware of this incompleteness. But it would take three years 
to put the collegiate capstone on. This meant three years of 
hard work, with no Immediate Income, but, on the other hand, 
a constant outgo. I had not money enough left to carry me 
through one year. Going to college would, therefore, Incur a 
larger debt than any sum I had ever seen at one time. A thou- 
sand dollars seemed an Immense sum. 



94 REMINISCENCES. 

I was now well advanced in my twenty-fifth year. I could 
make a living with what education I already had. And among 
the reasons adverse to the plan of completing my education 
was the fact that I must dismiss for a long time at least, if not 
altogether, the thought of a closer relation with my friend Miss 
Margaret Estes, for whom I fancied I entertained something 
more than a friendly sentiment. 

I doubt whether I would have had the moral force to go on 
but for the backing of two of the most substantial friends I 
ever had. Professor Mellen advised me to go to college. ColO'- 
nel Yates approved the plan and voluntarily offered to lend me 
the funds necessary to complete my college course. The confi- 
dence reposed in me by these men was a great moral tonic. I 
was at the dividing line between the experiences of the past, 
which were real, and the inspiring visions of the future, which 
might be illusory — the line between the real and the possible, 
between the known and the unknown. The opportunity of 
going to college was open to me. If I should not avail myself 
of it, I had a presentiment that the failure would always be a 
cause of regret. Above the urgent clamor of feeling was heard 
the imperative call of obligation to make the most of myself. 
I had heard of the saying of Milton : "I have chosen labor for 
my portion." I had read the lines of the poet : 

"I chose thee, Ease, and Glory fled 
Indignant at the choice I made." 

My mind did not remain long in the uncomfortable state of 
vacillation between these two sets of motives that were tugging 
at my will, I resolved to go on with my education, whatever 
might befall. 

During the fifty-seven years since that resolution was made 
I have had more gratitude to God and more respect for myself 
for having made the decision in favor of labor and self-sur- 
render to my highest ideals and opposed to the desire for ease 
and immediate gratification. I state this for the benefit of the 
young people who may read this story. There are in every nor- 
mal human being undreamed-of capacities for high moral 



REMINISCENCES. 95 

achievement. These capacities can be stimulated by the good 
example, the encouraging words, and material aid of other peo- 
ple. But our ultimate decisions must be made by each of us for 
himself. Our destiny is of our own making. "Qiiisque suae 
fortunae faher." 

Now we had to decide on the college. Professor Mellen 
for some reasons would have been pleased to have me go to 
Williams College, his Alma Mater. Whether he knew the dis- 
tance was too great for my means or whether he had a pre- 
monition of the coming conflict between the North and the 
South, I never knew. But he did not insist on my going to 
Williams. In the conversations on the subject he mentioned 
Emory College, of Georgia. Some of my other friends named 
the Southern University, at Greensboro, a new school just ad- 
vertised to open in the fall of 1859. My friend Colonel Yates 
favored the University of Alabama. I was launching my bark 
on unknown seas. I was willing to be guided by the clearest 
indications. An all-wise Providence, I believe, guided me in 
the best way, as will appear from this narrative. It would 
hardly have been pleasant or possible for me to have remained 
till graduation in Williams College during the storm and stress 
of the Civil War. Emory and the Southern University were 
practically closed the first year of the conflict, so that I could 
not have finished in either of these schools. The University of 
Alabama was made a military school in the fall of i860 and 
continued its work to the close of the war. Under this condi- 
tion I was able to finish my college course in 1862. But more 
of this later. 

At the close of the session in 1859 I made my farewell ad- 
dress before the school and community of Pierce's Springs, 
where I had spent the previous six years. At the request of 
Mr. Mellen, I gave him a copy of this address, which his son. 
Dr. George F. Mellen, of Knoxville, Tenn., found among his 
father's papers and sent to me in 19 10. I prize this as a me- 
mento of those pleasant and profitable years spent at Pierce's 
Springs. 



96 REMINISCENCES. 

Dr. George Frederick Mellen. 
As I am indebted to Dr. George Frederick Mellen for valu- 
able aid in the preparation of these sketches, it is meet and 
right that I make appreciative mention of him. He was born 
at Pierce's Springs, Mississippi, June 2y, 1859. He is the old- 
est son of Dr. S. S. Mellen, under whom he was carefully pre- 
pared for college. He entered the University of Alabama in 
the fall of 1877 and was graduated with the M.A. degree in 
the summer of 1879. After teaching some years, he went to 
Germany and studied in Leipsic, taking the degree of Ph.D. in 
1890. On his return to the United States he was elected to the 
chair of Greek in the University of Tennessee, which he volun- 
tarily relinquished in 1900 on account of health considerations. 
He is now living on his farm, near Knoxville, Tennessee, and 
is engaged in historical and literary work. 

John Parker and the Erosophic Society. 

In the latter part of September, 1859, I set out for Tusca- 
loosa. I traveled over the Mobile and Ohio Railroad from 
Shubuta to Macon Station and from there to Tuscaloosa by 
stagecoach. Tuscaloosa could be reached then only by stage- 
coach or private conveyance, except in the winter, when small 
stern-wheel boats can go from Mobile to Tuscaloosa. The riv- 
er was generally so low in the summer and fall that the boats 
could not run. Tuscaloosa, which now has three railroads, had 
none in 1859. 

On this journey I fell In with John Parker, a younger broth- 
er of Osborne and William A. Parker, who had several years 
before made the highest grades ever made at the University 
prior to the war. Their averages were practically one hundred. 
I shall anticipate and add a sentence or two in regard to these 
brilliant young men. Osborne had married Miss May Owen, a 
beautiful lady of Tuscaloosa, on the evening of his graduation, 
had studied law, and started out with most brilliant prospects, 
but was at this time (September, 1859) in the last stages of 
consumption. He was carried to St. Paul, Minnesota, in quest 
of health and in a few weeks was brought home to be buried. 



REMINISCENCES. ^ 97 

His passing was an illustration of the truth expressed in Gray's 
line, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave." But when 
one has to go to the grave it is a praiseworthy thing to leave 
behind him something worthy of remembrance. Mr. William 
Parker studied in Europe and was for many years Professor 
of Modern Languages in the University. 

John Parker had been in college a year or two before my 
entrance and was a member of the senior class. He seemed to 
be on the lookout for new students, and when he found that I 
was on my way to the University he was very kind in giving me 
some information in regard to student life. This was how best 
to secure and furnish my room and an endeavor to impress 
upon me the superior advantages of his literary society, stating 
that it was the larger and better of the two societies, a very 
natural thing for a loyal member to do. Through his courtesy 
and that of Paul Lewis I was induced to join the Erosophic 
Society, though I afterwards found some of my warmest 
friends in the Philomathic. These societies were an important 
element in the life of the old regime of the University. They 
promoted a good deal of sound reading and original discussion. 
These exercises were very helpful in making ready and effective 
speakers. 

7 



CHAPTER IX. 

Tuscaloosa and the University — Religious Club — Mrs. Sarah Banks Sims. 

ON my arrival in Tuscaloosa I put up at Washington Hall, 
in the city, a place where I had a very narrow escape on 
the night of April 3, 1865, which will be described on a later 
page. I found that the University did not open until the next 
week. This gave me time to look over the "City of Oaks," the 
"Druid City," as it was called, the third capital of Alabama. 
The town is situated on the east bank of the Black Warrior 
River, just below the falls, on an elevated plateau. Both river 
and town bear the name of an Indian chief, which in the Indian 
tongue is Tuscaloosa; in English, Black Warrior. The town 
has wide streets set with beautiful oaks. It had in 1859 about 
two thousand inhabitants. It seemed to be at a standstill, if 
not on a retrograde, from the effect of moving the capital to 
Montgomery in 1847. The houses on the back streets were 
rather shabby-looking, so much so that one traveler called the 
place a "dilapidated old rookery." Still it was the home of a 
good deal of wealth, for the most part in the hands of planters 
whose farms were down the river and out in the adjoining 
country in some cases thirty or forty miles south in the cane- 
brake. It was, no doubt, the center of more culture than any 
other place in the State. On the main streets, especially Greens- 
boro and Main, there were a number of fine residences, such as 
the Battles', the Jemisons', the Eddinses', the Guilds', the Har- 
rises', the Ormonds', and others. It was the home of the fami- 
lies of Ex-Governor Henry W. Collier, Ex-Governor Joshua L. 
Martin, Judge John J. Ormond, Judge Washington Moody, 
and Hon. William R. Smith. In it were located four flourish- 
ing female schools — ^the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and 
Episcopal — ^all well filled with students from the families of 
the best people of that section. 

The Methodist College was then in charge of Rev. F. M. 
Grace. Soon afterwards it went into the hands of Mrs. M. J. 
(98) 



REMINISCENCES. 99 

T. Saunders, a very brilliant lady, who taught in more places 
than any other person I have ever known. To her I was in- 
debted for many courtesies. The Baptist school was located in 
the old Statehouse and was, I think, in charge of the Rev. Josh- 
ua H. Foster. The Presbyterian school was conducted by Mrs. 
Samuel M. Stafford, whose husband had been for many years 
Professor of Latin in the University. The Episcopal school 
was conducted by Mrs. Tuomey, the widow of Professor Mich- 
ael Tuomey, a noted geologist, who was brought to Alabama to 
survey its mineral lands and who, while he was engaged in this 
survey, struck his hammer on the rocks where Birmingham 
now stands and prophesied : "Here will be a great city some 
day." 

About a mile northeast of the town of Tuscaloosa and just 
opposite the falls is situated the University on a plat of several 
hundred acres, a most eligible site for an institution of learn- 
ing. The water running over the falls is nearly always audi- 
ble, quite distinctly when the atmosphere is still, giving a ro- 
mantic effect to the place. 

The old University buildings as I knew them in 1859 were 
located on a campus of about thirty acres and consisted of the 
following : The Rotunda in the center, the Madison and Jeffer- 
son Buildings on the east, the Franklin and Washington on 
the west, and the Lyceum on the north. Each was situated 
about seventy-five yards from the Rotunda and connected with 
it by a gravel walk shaded by rows of beautiful oaks and elms 
just large enough to be in all their glory in 1859. The lower 
story of the Rotunda was used as the chapel. In this we as- 
sembled every morning for prayers, on Sunday afternoons at 
three o'clock for preaching, and for all other public occasions. 
The second story was used as the library. This was dome- 
shaped and had some of the properties of a whispering gallery. 
The gentlest whisper on one side could be heard by a person in 
the focus on the opposite side. Some amusing stories were told 
of private conversations overheard in this room. The Madison 
Building contained the halls of the two literary societies and 
several recitation rooms. The Jefferson, Franklin, and Wash- 



lOO REMINISCENCES. 

ington Buildings were all used as dormitories. Each suite con- 
sisted of three rooms, one large room in front for study and 
reception and two smaller rooms for sleeping apartments. The 
Lyceum contained the laboratories and several recitation rooms. 
In its cupola was located the college bell that called us to our 
duties. Directly south of the Rotunda and across the street 
stood the President's mansion, distant from the Rotunda about 
one hundred and fifty yards. On the corners of the campus 
were five professors' houses. Outside the campus, toward 
town, were the Observatory and another professor's residence. 
There was a simplicity and convenience about this group of 
buildings not always found in more pretentious systems of 
architecture. I have thus gone into detail because these old 
buildings have all passed away except the Observatory and five 
professors' houses. Such were the University buildings in the 
fall of 1859. 

On the arrival of William Hopkins and Clay Roberts, two 
Choctaw County boys, who had been students at Pierce's 
Springs and who had asked to room with me, we proceeded to 
secure our room. There was not much choice, as we found 
that the most desirable rooms had already been taken by the 
old students. The room assigned us was Number i on the 
first floor of the Franklin Building, southwest from the Ro^ 
tunda. Hopkins and Roberts chose the corner apartment, and I 
took the other. We furnished our room with rather cheap 
furniture — hard shuck mattresses, scanty cover, plain water 
buckets, tin wash pans, tin candlesticks, and star candles. 
Kerosene lamps had not appeared yet. 

While waiting to get our rooms ready I had to board longer 
at the hotel than I expected ; and the furnishing of our rooms, 
though in the plainest style, had cost more than I anticipated. 
In addition to these expenses, I found that we were required to 
deposit with the treasurer of the University a sum sufficient to 
pay our board for the first term. There could be no exception 
to the rule, we were informed, and all this required thirty-one 
dollars more than I had. There were then no telegraph or tele- 
phone systems, no express companies, and no fast mails in Ala- 



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REMINISCENCES. loi 

bama. I went to Dr. Garland, the President, and told him that 
I was in trouble ; that I lacked thirty-one dollars of having mon- 
ey enough to pay my board for the first term ; that I was bor- 
rowing money to pay my expenses and was reluctant to call on 
my friend Colonel Yates so soon, as he might think I was not so 
economical as a borrower should be ; and that perhaps it might 
be best for me to return home and go to work. The Doctor 
scanned me closely, as if taking the measure of my manhood, 
and then in a very kind manner said: "O, I will fix that. 
I will lend you thirty-one dollars until it is convenient for 
you to pay it." This settled the matter of board for the first 
term. 

I passed the entrance examination and was enrolled sophcn 
more along with forty-two other applicants for that class. 
But I was not yet in an open sea under full sail. For two years 
and a half I had been teaching the elementary studies in the 
academy at Pierce's Springs. This had absorbed so much of 
my time and energies that my mind had apparently lost its 
grip on continuous study. Besides, the methods in the Univer- 
sity were different from those to which I had been accustomed. 
In order to recover my power of application and adjust myself 
to the new system, I had for some weeks to put forth effort 
that was painful and depressing. I know of no more discour- 
aging thing than to find one's mind failing to respond to his 
efforts. By persistent endeavor I succeeded in getting my les- 
sons, but there was no lively mental activity and not much 
pleasure in my work. Within two or three months my former 
pleasure in study began to revive, and the faculty reported that 
I was making good progress. 

During this year our class studied trigonometry, descriptive 
geometry, and calculus. In English we took courses in analy- 
sis of the English language, rhetoric, and logic, with essay- 
writing. In Latin we read the essays of Cicero, the histories 
of Tacitus, and the poems of Plautus, carrying at the same 
time a course in Latin composition. In Greek we read the 
"Iliad" of Homer, the "Crito" of Plato, and some of the plays 
of Sophocles, together with a course in Greek composition and 



I02 REMINISCENCES. 

2l course of lectures on Greek mythology. We had no mid-term 
examinations, but had to review the whole ten months' work 
and be examined on it all during the last six weeks of the 
school year. This was a pretty trying task, as the examinations 
were honest and thorough. There were some attempts made at 
cheating, though they were generally detected and punished. 
We could not give or receive any help nor use any unfair 
means without violating our word of honor. The penalty for 
such violation was expulsion. The examination questions were 
sent to New York to be printed. 

The problem among the indifferent students was how to get 
hold of these examination questions. The professors knew this 
and were exceedingly careful to guard against any theft. There 
was one boy in college who was a past master in shrewdness 
and daring. He was watching for an opportunity, which he met 
with on Sunday morning when Professor Battle and all his fam- 
ily were absent at church. He went to the professor's house, 
bribed the housegirl to give him the keys to the professor's 
drawers, and searched for a painfully long time, he said, when 
finally he came to the Greek examination papers carefully hid 
away under some old rubbish in the bottom of a drawer. He 
took out a few copies of the papers for each class, put every- 
thing back in order, locked the drawers, and delivered the keys 
to the servant. The Greek classes were now in high glee. 
Some of the best students who knew that they could pass cred- 
itably and had some respect for their word of honor refused 
to look at the papers. The boys overdid the thing. Instead 
of making just enough to pass, they got excellent grades, the 
best students in the classes having the most defective papers. 
Professor Battle was astonished and worried. He laid the 
case before the faculty, who declared that the boys had stolen 
his papers. He insisted that this was impossible. The faculty 
decided to give each student his average sessional standing, 
which "flunked" a number of them. 

I think it was about four years before the faculty knew how 
these papers were procured. The student who did the stealing 
had gone into the army. After the war he went to Texas, 



REMINISCENCES. 103 

where he became a judge of some note. His act was more 
applauded for its daring than condemned as a theft. It is re- 
corded of Lord Nelson that he climbed a wall and stole some 
fruit just because his schoolmates declared that he would not 
dare to do it. Such deeds sometimes indicate great capacity 
and great bravery. The thing for parents and teachers to do 
is to get the boys to appreciate higher standards of morality 
than generally exist in the code of "the gang." 

At commencement our records were read in public and pub- 
lished in the leading papers of the State. Mine was : "Distin- 
guished in all studies, with no demerits." Frank Farley had 
the highest average among the students, 97+, and I had the 
second, an average of 96+. Thus ended my first year's 
work. Up to commencement I had formed no acquaintances 
in town except a few in the Sunday school, who will be men- 
tioned in the proper place. After this I had plenty of invi- 
tations to visit the best families in the town of Tuscaloosa, 
which has always been noted for its aristocracy of culture and 
its encouragement of ambitious students. 

In this connection the general history of the year is appro- 
priate. On the first Sunday after my arrival In Tuscaloosa I 
handed my Church letter to Rev. Joseph B. Cottrell, pastor 
of the Methodist Church, and joined the Sunday school, which 
was under the superintendency of Mr. Philip A. Fitts. I was 
assigned to the class of Mr. A. C. Hargrove. I have kept up 
this habit of promptly identifying myself with the Church 
whenever I have moved to a new place — a thing I would advise 
all, especially young people, to do. This course will help to 
protect them against lapses in conduct, affiliate them with the 
best people in the community, and bring inspiration from the 
purest sources. As the Church people were the first I became 
acquainted with, I shall mention a few of them. 

Mr. Cottrell was a brilliant man, a good preacher, witty and 
versatile, but inclined to be erratic. He was a decided success 
as a stump speaker. In this role he was inimitable. I heard 
him make a speech on secession which was witty, sarcastic, 
and thrilling In Its effects. Several other speeches were made 



I04 REMINISCENCES. 

on the same occasion, but they were all tame compared with 
his. In his later years this talent led him to the lecture plat- 
form. Mr. Cottrell made me feel at home in the parsonage. 
I am indebted to him for social courtesies. 

Mr. Fitts was an alumnus of the University. Before I knew 
him he had been a teacher in Centenary Institute, associated 
with Professor John S. Moore, who told me the following in- 
cident: Mr. Fitts was invited to make a speech before one of 
the literary societies, and the time for his address was set for a 
certain day. An earlier hour was left open in the commence- 
ment program by the failure of some other speaker to appear. 
So it was proposed to put Mr. Fitts up to speak on short notice 
and without much time for arranging his toilet or his thoughts. 
He was complaining to Mr. Moore about being moved around 
to suit the convenience of the program. Mr. Moore remarked : 
"Phil, I wouldn't do it. I would stand up for my rights." Mr. 
Fitts answered; "Yes, you can stand up for your rights and 
stand up for your rights until you have nothing but rights to 
stand up to." 

This calls to mind an instance related in the life of Alice 
Freeman Palmer when she was President of Wellesley Col- 
lege. There came to Wellesley for a period of special study 
a woman who had already spent several years in teaching. 
She was nervous, vain, and sensitive, easily finding in whatever 
was said or done a covert disparagement of herself. As she 
was complaining one day of some rudeness Miss Freeman 
said: "Why not be superior to these things and let them go 
unregarded? You will soon find that you have nothing to 
regard." The woman retorted: "I wonder how you would 
like to be insulted." Miss Freeman drew herself up with 

splendid dignity and replied: "Miss M , there is no one 

living who could insult me." 

It was to Mr. Fitts's credit that he went on and made his 
speech. We can lose the best there is in store for us by con- 
tending too strenuously for our abstract rights. Christ's plan 
of self-forget fulness will secure the richest reward. Mr. Fitts 



REMINISCENCES. 105 

was a bright man, made a good Sunday school superintendent, 
and in later years became an Episcopal minister. 

Mr. Hargrove was a splendid young man of dignity and 
force of character. He was my warm personal friend as long 
as he lived. He became a prominent lawyer, served in the 
Legislature, became President of the Senate, and was one of 
the commissioners appointed to manage the forty-six thousand 
acres of mineral lands which came from the United States 
government as indemnification for the destruction of the Uni- 
versity buildings by the Federal army. 

The end of Mr. Hargrove was very sad. He had an elegant 
home and was well-to-do in all material and social conditions 
that could make life desirable. During the war he received a 
bullet, lodged somewhere in his head, from which it could never 
be extracted. This gave him increased pain as he grew older. 
It was thought that this dethroned his reason and led to his 
death. 

Religious Club. 

There were no organizations among the students for reli- 
gious culture in 1859. A few students felt the need of some- 
thing of the kind. Early in the session Andrew McGowen 
(Presbyterian), Luke White Duggar (Episcopalian), John C. 
Knox and Frank Farley (Baptists), Solomon Palmer and my- 
self (Methodists), with the approval of the faculty, formed a 
club for aiding each other with sympathy and advice, for social 
and religious culture, and for holding prayer meetings in one 
of the recitation rooms every Sunday night. I think Mc- 
Gowen was the leader in this movement. Tliese meetings 
were kept up regularly as long as we were students in the 
University. All students were invited to our meetings. Some- 
times we had a roomful ; sometimes we had few. While these 
meetings did not seem to make a deep impression upon the 
college body, I feel sure that they were helpful to those who 
engaged actively in them. By our action we were able to show 
oar colors as Christian men among a body of students not 
noted for piety. I believe that we were thus shielded from 
temptations that might otherwise have come to us. 



io6 REMINISCENCES. 

It is rather a sad task to record the passing of these splendid 
fellows. Frank Farley died about the middle of our second 
year from an acute attack of rheumatism and overtaxing a 
constitution not naturally strong. McGowen was killed at the 
battle of Missionary Ridge. Knox was engaged in teaching 
after the close of the war. While playing baseball with his 
students he fell and was suddenly killed by striking his head 
against a stump. Palmer lived a long and useful life as an 
educator, serving four years as State Superintendent of Edu- 
cation. He died of heart disease while President of the East 
Lake Athenaeum. Duggar died a few years ago at his home, 
in Perry County. Peace be with them all ! No praise from 
me can add to their good names. My heart grows warm with 
affectionate remembrance when I think of their upright con- 
duct and the fine temper of their spirits, which can nevermore 
be ruffled by the storms of earth. 

"Asleep in Jesus ! blessed sleep, 
From which none ever wakes to weep ! 
A calm and undisturbed repose, 
Unbroken by the last of foes." 

Mrs. Sarah Banks Sims. 

In the latter part of April Mrs. Sarah Banks Sims, an elder- 
ly lady of means, who lived out about two miles from town 
and about the same distance from the University, desired to 
make a visit of several weeks to relatives in Georgia. She 
wanted some reliable person to stay at her home at night to 
take care of the premises. Mr. F. F. Hemphill, her son-in-law, 
with whom I had become acquainted through the Church and 
Sunday school, suggested my name to Mrs. Sims. When I 
called at her request, she offered my board for the services of 
taking care of her house while she was absent. I accepted the 
offer, as this arrangement would save something on my ex- 
penses and at the same time serve this most estimable lady. 
There would be no one else on the place but the negro servants, 
but I was well acquainted with negroes and knew how to get 
along with them. This gave me a two-mile walk morning and 



REMINISCENCES. 107 

evening, which I found to be a heahhful exercise. When Mrs. 
Sims returned, she insisted on my staying with her the remain- 
der of the session, which closed sometime in July. She also 
offered my board for my company the next year. This tender 
I would have accepted but for the introduction of the military 
system, which required the students to board in the barracks. 
I shall always remember Mrs, Sims for her great kindness and 
for her gracious spirit manifested in everything she did. In 
thus serving her I saved about three months' board. So I had 
to borrow only a hundred dollars from Colonel Yates. When 
I wrote to him for the money, he promptly sent me in a letter 
one-half of a hundred-dollar bill. After he got my letter ac- 
knowledging receipt of the first half, he promptly sent me the 
other half. When I pasted the parts together, I had a hundred 
dollars in money at par with gold. This enabled me to renew 
my wardrobe and to pay my expenses back to Choctaw County. 
Mr, Charles Walker's carriage was returning to Faunsdale 
from commencement. I was invited to a seat in it with Miss 
Maggie Walker as far as her home, where I spent about a 
week with my old schoolmates, Mims and Mac Walker, 



CHAPTER X. 

PROFESSORS OF 1859-60. 
Dr. Landon C. Garland — Professor John W. Pratt. 

DURING the scholastic year 1859-60 the faculty was com- 
posed of the following gentlemen : ( i ) Landon Cabell 
Garland, A.M., LJLD., President and Professor of Mental and 
Moral Philosophy; (2) John W. Pratt, A.M., Professor of 
English Language and Literature; (3) George William Be- 
nagh, A.M., Professor of Applied Mathematics (Mechanics, 
Optics, Acoustics, and Astronomy) ; (4) Archibald J. Battle, 
A.M., Professor of Greek Language and Literature; (5) Wil- 
liam S. Wyman, A.M., Professor of Latin Language and Lit- 
erature; (6) John W. Mallet, A.M., Ph.D., Professor of 
Chemistry and Geology; (7) Andre DeLoffre, Professor of 
French and Spanish Languages; (8) William J. Vaughn, 
A.M., Professor of Pure Mathematics. I have given the titles 
they bore at this time. 

During my first year I was in the classes of only four of 
these professors, but during my second and third years I was 
in the classes of the others. As I am under lasting obligation 
to each of them, I may as well acknowledge this here. 

Dr. Landon C. Garland. 

In my address as President of the Alabama Educational 
Association in 1895 in speaking of Dr. Garland I said that I 
regarded him as the "prince of Southern educators." Twenty 
years of experience and observation since his death, in 1895^ 
have rather increased than diminished my estimate. 

He came of a family noted for talent, probity, and a high 
sense of honor. He was born in Nelson County, Virginia, 
March 21, 1810, was graduated from Hampden-Sidney Col- 
lege in 1829, and was immediately elected lecturer and soon 
afterwards Professor of Chemistry in Washington College 
(now Washington and Lee University). In 1834 he was made 
(108) 



REMINISCENCES. 109 

a professor in Randolph-Macon College and accepted the place 
at a lower salary than he was receiving, because of his devotion 
to his own Church, or, as he expressed it, his Church pride. 
The new Randolph-Macon College was just starting, and it 
was said by those who were not friendly to Methodism that 
the trustees could not find men competent to fill the faculty 
without going outside of the Methodist Church. Professor 
Garland never could permit any cause to which he gave his 
adherence to suffer loss for lack of his support. In 1836 he 
was made President on the retirement of Stephen Olin, After 
serving in this capacity for ten years, he resigned to study law 
and was admitted to the bar. But Dr. Basil Manly, President 
of the University of Alabama, who was on the alert for the 
best men for his institution, had him elected to the chair of 
Physics and Astronomy. He entered this new field in the fall 
of 1847. On the retirement of Dr. Manly from the presidency 
in 1855, Dr. Garland was made President and continued in this 
position till the University buildings were destroyed by the 
Federal army in 1865. In 1867 he was elected to a professor- 
ship in the University of Mississippi, which he filled till he was 
elected Chancellor of Central University (Vanderbilt), in 
1875. In this office he served till his resignation was reluctant- 
ly accepted in 1893, when he was continued as Emeritus Pro- 
fessor of Physics and Astronomy on full salary till his death, 
on February 12, 1895. It is a matter of some personal pride 
that his assistant in this chair was Dr. John Daniel, one of my 
former students. 

Dr. Garland filled more chairs than any other man I ever 
knew. The ability to discharge the duties involved in any or 
all of them did not measure the greatness of his character. I 
trust that I may be pardoned in going somewhat into detail in 
regard to my recollections of him, as I was more intimately 
associated with him than any other student of my day. I be- 
came his private secretar}' in the fall of i860 and continued in 
this position for a year and a half. At that time there was no 
such thing as a fully developed system of shorthand and type- 
writing in use. The Doctor had been doing w^ith his own hand 



no REMINISCENCES. 

nearly all of his writing, embracing a large correspondence, 
numerous military orders arising out of the recent introduc- 
tion of the military system, and records of various business 
transactions connected with the University. While he wrote 
rapidly and in a very neat running hand with scarcely ever a 
mistake, all this clerical work was too much for any one man, 
even if he had had no other duties. But he filled the chair of 
Mental and Moral Philosophy in addition to his duties as Pres- 
ident of the University. Few men could have carried the bur- 
den as long as he did. 

A short time after the opening of the session he sent for me 
to come to his office. He said : "As you are borrowing money 
to defray your expenses here, I think I can arrange for you to 
serve me and save some money for yourself. Of course your 
education is the matter of prime consideration. I would not 
have you sacrifice that. If you can, in addition to your studies 
and military duties, give me two hours of your time each day, 
I will have the University pay all of your expenses. You must 
be the judge whether you can take upon yourself this extra 
work." I was glad to have the opportunity to pay my ex- 
penses without accumulating so large a debt at the end of my 
college course. I was also very glad to have the opportunity 
to serve him. After thinking of the matter a day or two, I 
decided to accept his offer, fully convinced that I would be 
taxed to the utmost of my ability. While this extra tax on 
my strength would not have been a good thing in the earlier 
stages of my school life, it turned out well for me at this time. 
I had to do my work in the shortest possible time. I had to 
exercise all the concentration of which I was capable and bring 
all of my mental resources into requisition. In a few weeks 
I was greatly encouraged to find my mind responding tO' my 
efforts and that I was succeeding better in my studies than I 
had ever dreamed possible. 

The Doctor's office was in one of the front rooms of the 
basement of the President's mansion. Some days the work 
was not enough to keep me busy the whole two hours. At oth- 
er times I had to give more than the required time to keep up 



REMINISCENCES, 1 1 1 

with it. During these office hours there was not much time 
for conversation, except on business. But this association with 
him gave me an insight into his modes of hfe and traits of char- 
acter exhibited under all the various conditions that can come 
to a college president in whom nearly the whole management 
centered. The administration of the University of Alabama at 
that time was very different from that of the highly systema- 
tized modern universities. 

As a student, as his private secretary, later as an instruc- 
tor in military tactics, and finally as assistant professor in the 
University, I saw him in almost every possible light. I saw 
him under circumstances of great provocation that chafed his 
spirit, but I never knew him to be thrown off his dignity. I 
saw him in the classroom when a good recitation would light 
up his features with a peculiar smile of approbation. I also 
saw how poor recitations and shabby work wounded him, but 
never drew from him an unkind or sarcastic rebuke. His look 
of disappointment was the most touching reproof to a lazy 
student. I saw him more than once in the Rotunda before the 
whole body of students when some evil spirit seemed to possess 
them. He would show signs of sympathetic concern over 
their errors and make appeals to their better nature which 
nearly always prevailed. But when kindness and paternal 
solicitude failed to accomplish their object, he could rise to a 
regal stature of manhood that shone out through his great 
personality without any signs of vindictiveness. 

I saw him preside in faculty meetings, anxious only to get 
at the right. I saw him in the role of lecturer before the stu- 
dents on Sunday afternoons. It was the custom under the old 
regime to hold a special service for the students in the Rotunda 
at three o'clock on Sunday, conducted by the Baptists, Presby- 
terians, Episcopalians, and Methodists in rotation. Dr. Gar- 
land, though only a layman, sometimes occupied the Methodist 
hour. On one of these occasions he spoke on the martyrdom 
of Stephen. He made the picture of Stephen's face so vivid 
as he "looked up into heaven and saw Jesus standing on the 
right hand of God" that the memory of that Sunday afternoon 



112 REMINISCENCES. 

service is still as clear to my mind as anything I ever experi- 
enced. 

I also heard him on the public platform under different con- 
ditions. He was not an expert reader of manuscript. I saw 
him on one occasion attempt to read a lecture at night. He 
could not see very well, and in trying to find the place he lost 
the thread of his argument and abandoned the manuscript. 
He never recovered his free and easy style on that occasion. 
I heard him say that he could not memorize anything verbatim. 
Mrs. Garland told me that she sometimes attempted to hear 
him rehearse addresses he was preparing for public delivery, 
but that she never could keep up with him. He would not 
follow the exact phraseology of the manuscript, but would 
express the thought in different language every time he went 
over it. When he had a subject well in mind, I never heard a 
man who could state it so clearly and forcibly. His thoughts 
came forth in logical order, through a slight impediment, in 
sentences of chaste and elegant English that glittered like crys- 
tals in the sunlight. 

The Doctor was a universal scholar for his day. He had at 
different times filled the chairs of Chemistry, Mathematics, 
Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, Greek and Latin, English, 
French, and Mental and Moral Science. His keen analytical 
mind had mastered all these subjects so far as they were de- 
veloped in his day. His ideas were clear on any subject that 
he had ever studied. His fine intellectual powers were pervad- 
ed and enlivened by a vivid imagination that caused all of his 
mental productions to take on a beautiful form. He was an 
idealist in the best sense of the term. He lived in a spiritual 
atmosphere that seemed to envelop his whole life. I think the 
capacity for this spiritual insight must have come to him from 
his mother, whose godly life he held in sacred remembrance. 
He told me something of her great faith and of her wonder- 
ful dreams that came true and so impressed him that he felt 
sure she lived in close communion with the spirit world. He 
had much of the same abiding trust in God's dealings with 
himself. In this, it seems to me, lay much of his greatness, 



REMINISCENCES. 113 

his power to "look at things not seen" by the mental facul- 
ties alone and to feel their reality without becoming mysti- 
cal and losing his hold on time and the duties of the present 
life. 

While many of the Garland family were Episcopalians, he 
remained a stanch Methodist after the example of his mother, 
Mrs. Lucinda Rose Garland. He did not, however, indorse all 
of the strict discipline of some of the early preachers. I heard 
him say that Rev. Edward Wadsworth, who was the pastor 
of Randolph-Macon during his presidency, had driven one 
of his sisters from the Methodist Church because he insisted 
on her taking off a plain gold breastpin. He thought such 
literal construction of a rule illiberal and unwise. Dr. Wads- 
worth many years afterwards was my pastor in Mobile, Ala- 
bama. I am sure that he had become much more liberal when 
I knew him. His dealings with his Church members were very 
mild and gentle in his latter years. 

Dr. Garland was a diligent student of the Bible. He was in 
the habit of reading the New Testament in the original Greek. 
He was also fond of Wesley's "Sermons." He said that they 
"bristled with quotations from the Bible." He was a regular 
attendant at church and a most attentive listener. He said that 
Stephen Olin was the most original and powerful preacher he 
ever heard and that Bishop George F. Pierce was the most 
graceful and eloquent, but that if he had to choose a minister 
to preach to him every Sunday he did not know one whom he 
would rather have than O. R. Blue, of the Alabama Confer- 
ence. 

As a slaveowner Dr. Garland was not a success from a 
financial point of view. He had some family servants, and 
his wife had some who had come to them by inheritance. 
While he firmly believed that slavery was sanctioned by the 
Bible, he condemned in the strongest terms the abuses of the 
institution, especially the separation of husbands and wives 
and of parents and young children. Whenever any of his 
slaves intermarried with those of other owners, he always 
bought or sold to prevent separation. As his slaves rarely 
8 



1 14 REMINISCENCES. 

ever wished to be sold, he was nearly always the buyer. By 
these purchases and by natural increase his slaves had grown 
to something over fifty when he came to Alabama in 1847. 
They were always a burden to him. I believe that he was 
partially relieved when they were set free. I say partially, for 
he never could free himself from the care of them. 

The Doctor was one of the finest talkers I ever heard, but 
it could hardly be said that he was a good conversationalist. 
Every one was too much inclined to let him be the principal 
speaker, like Coleridge, when his mind got started. He could 
enjoy a good anecdote as much as any man I ever knew, and 
he could tell some amusing ones. One I recall ran in this 
wise: Chief Justice Marshall was as much noted for the 
lack of thrift and good management in his home affairs as 
he was for his mental acumen and great legal learning. He 
drove an old rickety carriage with broken shafts tied with 
hickory withes and drawn by a pair of lean, uncurried horses. 
One of his neighbors suggested to him that his hostler must 
not be feeding the horses. He called the groom to account for 
his negligence, saying : "Look at Colonel Huntingdon's horses. 
See how sleek and fat they are." The colored groom was 
equal to the emergency, answering without any hesitation : 
"Well, Massa, but yo' mus' remember it runs in de blood. 
Colonel Huntingdon is big an' fat. Ole Miss Huntingdon is 
big an' fat. His carriage driver is big an' fat. Now, Massa, 
just look at yo'. Yo' is po' an' lean. Ole Miss is po' an' lean. 
I is po' an' lean. I tell yo' it runs in de blood. Yo' can't make 
dem horses fat." The negro's shrewd and ready argument 
from appearances not only amused the Doctor, but the anecdote 
threw side lights on the Chief Justice and old Virginia life in 
those early days. 

The Doctor was always a great reader. When many others 
were rusticating and spending their time in idleness and mere 
physical enjoyment, he relaxed his mind by reading light lit- 
erature. He had a plain country home on the mountain at 
Blount Springs. When he would pack up for his Blount trip, 
Miss Louise, his daughter, told me that he always took Scott's 



REMINISCENCES. 115 

novels and other light literature, of which he was so fond that 
he read them many times for recreation. 

He was an excellent mathematician. I heard him say that 
his first love was for mathematics. After he took up science 
he became fond of that. But later he returned to his first love. 
While teaching mathematics he was not satisfied with the text- 
books then in use. So he wrote a text on trigonometry and 
one on calculus, the manuscripts of which were destroyed by 
fire, if I mistake not, and were never rewritten. 

No doubt there are more accurate scholars in all the fields 
of learning in which men have become specialists — ^more noted 
mathematicians, more advanced astronomers, more practical 
chemists, more learned linguists, more subtle psychologists, 
more profound philosophers, more successful business men,, 
more able administrators in college government — hut there 
never has been a more excellent teacher. Take him as an all- 
round man, of fine native intelligence, of broad general schol- 
arship, of clear spiritual insight, of transparent candor, of easy 
manners without affectation, of zealous public spirit without 
hope of public remuneration, and as a man of tireless devotion 
to duty with no end in view but the answer of a good con- 
science and the approval of God, he was a rare combination, 
whose like we shall not soon look upon again. 

Of the many good fortunes that have come into my life, I 
count it among the greatest to have been intimately associated 
with Dr. Garland and his estimable family. I never knew a 
family in which there was a more free and easy-going life. 
Mrs. Garland was serious and dignified, but kind and motherly. 
His oldest daughter. Miss Rose, soon after I entered college 
married Colonel B. B. Lewis and moved to another part of the 
State. I, however, always numbered her and her husband 
among my sincere friends. Colonel Lewis was President of 
the University when he died. It was his wish, as I was in- 
formed after his death, that I should be his successor in the 
presidency. Miss Louise, who married Dr. Milton W. Hum- 
phreys, of the University of Virginia, was one of my most 
intimate friends among the ladies of Tuscaloosa. She was 



ii6 REMINISCENCES. 

remarkably brilliant and entertaining, with the rare faculty 
of bringing sunshine into any circle. I never had the pleasure 
of meeting her after the old "fraternity" was separated in 
1865. Miss Jennie, who married my classmate. Dr. Eugene 
A. Smith, I count among my dear friends, whose kindness has 
been rendered sacred by the flight of more than fifty years. 
She is now the only living member of the Garland family. 

Professor John W. PfeAxx. 

Professor Pratt was born in St. Mary's, Georgia, May 21, 
1827, and died in Louisville, Kentucky, March 24, 1888. He 
was graduated from the University of Alabama with high 
honors at the age of seventeen, studied for the ministry at 
Princeton, New Jersey, and was licensed to preach May 6, 
1848, six days before his majority. He became Professor of 
English Literature in the University of Alabama in 1850, 
occupying the chair held by his father, Horace Southworth 
Pratt, ten years before. Here he remained until the University 
buildings were destroyed. He held the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from Washington and Lee University. 

Soon after the close of the war he opened a boys' school in 
Brooklyn, New York. In 1868 he accepted a call to the Pres- 
byterian Church in Lexington, Virginia. In 1874 he accepted 
the presidency of Central University, Kentucky. In 188 1 he 
became pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, Louisville, 
Kentucky. This was his last regular work, as his health failed, 
and he resigned his pastorate in 1883. 

Professor Pratt was a man of fine talents and an able 
preacher. I am not well informed as to his success in other 
fields ; but I am well acquainted with his ability as a teacher of 
English, as I derived great benefit not only from the instruc- 
tion I received in his classes, but also from the collateral read- 
ing I did under his direction. My grades in his classes were 
generally maximum. But in one examination on Whately's 
"Logic" he paid me a two-edged compliment. I had studied 
the subject thoroughly and was sure that I could answer any 
question on the matter contained in the book. One of the topics 



REMINISCENCES, 117 

for examination was the discussion of the doctrine of proba- 
bilities, and as an illustration of it we were given the question, 
"What is the probability of throwing an ace in three throws 
of a dice, expressed in fractional terms ?" I wrote out correctly 
the answer to every question except this one. Strange as it 
may seem, I had never played dice and did not know the mean- 
ing of the simple question. Provoked by it, I refused to ask 
him what he meant and wrote as my answer, "I do not under- 
stand the question." He gave me one hundred on each of the 
other topics and zero on this one, which made the grade of this 
examination the lowest I ever made in the University. He was 
surprised at my failure. When I told him afterwards that I 
did not know the meaning of the question, he said: "What? 
Never played dice?" I answered: "No; I don't know what a 
dice is." He said : "You ought to have asked for an explana- 
tion." I said : "That would have looked too much like solicit- 
ing aid from you in examination." His criticism was: "You 
ought to have a zero for being too proud to ask for informa- 
tion and a hundred for not knowing how to play dice." 

Professor Pratt had a very keen insight in dealing with 
human motives. In dealing with boys he was hard to fool. 
He was equal to any emergency. Along with his keen sense 
there was a vein of humor which sometimes came out in the 
classroom. In the exercise of this I saw a student get even 
with him on one occasion. The use of tobacco was general 
among preachers fifty years ago. Professor Pratt never 
smoked in the recitation room, but he sometimes indulged in 
a chew during long examinations. This necessitated a spit- 
toon near his desk. One day a student was indulging in the 
same luxury; and, not having a spittoon, he was making his 
deposits on the floor. The Professor in a very polite manner 
adverted to the impropriety of the student's act in such a way 
as to create a ripple of laughter through the room. The stu- 
dent took the rebuke in good part, but went on chewing his 
tobacco. When he had occasion to make another deposit of 
ambeer, he deliberately walked up to the Professor's spittoon 
and made it there. The class roared with laughter at the quiet 



1 18 REMINISCENCES. 

"audacity of the boy. The Professor seemed to enjoy it as 
inuch as any of us. 

Professor Pratt had a charming family. Mrs. Pratt, a beau- 
tiful woman, was Miss Mary Grace Crabb, and on her mother's 
side a member of the Inge family, of West Alabama. I had 
the honor of spending some social evenings in their household. 
The Professor always read his Bible and held his family devo- 
tions when the hour came, including his guests. 

While he was President of Central University he visited 
Mobile, where I heard him preach an eloquent sermon in Gov- 
ernment Street Presbyterian Church in 1875. This was the 
occasion of our last meeting. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PROFESSORS OF 1859-60 (CONTINUED). 

Professor George William Benagh, A.M. — Professor Archibald J. Battle, 
A.M. — Professor William S. Wyman, A.M. — Professor John William 
Mallet, A.M., Ph.D. — Professor Andre DeLoffre — Professor William J. 
Vaughn, A.M. 

Professor George William Benagh. 

PROFESSOR BENAGH was a native of Lynchburg, Vir- 
ginia. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. He was bom 
August 24, 1824. He was graduated from Randolph-Macon 
College under the presidency of Dr. L. C. Garland in 1843 
with first honor, though the youngest member of his class. 
He studied law and practiced in his native city till he was 
chosen in 1850 to fill the chair of Mixed Mathematics in the 
University of Alabama. He was the first Secretary of the 
Alabama Historical Society, which was organized in 1850. 

Professor Benagh was a tall, dignified, handsome man, 
whose graceful and courtly bearing impressed me so much, 
even before I entered his classes, that I resolved to make him 
my model in manners. During my second and third years in 
college I was in his classes, part of this time by myself. I have 
always been grateful to him for the careful attention he gave 
me. I am sure that I got more out of this special work, in 
which I had to do all the reciting, than I would have gotten in 
the class recitations. He made me feel so free and easy that it 
seemed more like two students working together than a student 
reciting to a professor. The problems in mechanics, acoustics, 
optics, and astronomy were worked out step by step in a man- 
ner to make these usually dry subjects a very entertaining men- 
tal exercise. These recitations seemed to give him as much 
pleasure as they did me. 

He had a clear, logical mind that could hold long, complicat- 
ed problems in perfect order without reference to the textbook. 
He would hear the student recite through to the end without 

(119) 



I20 REMINISCENCES. 

any interruption. Then he would go back and ask questions^ 
to be sure that the student understood all the steps in the solu- 
tion. This was a pleasure to good students who could give the 
reasons in every step in the process, but it was very much 
dreaded by those who memorized without comprehending the 
reasoning. There was no such thing as passing through his 
recitations with imperfect lessons undetected. I have heard 
students says: *Tf 'Old George' would not ask any questions, I 
could make fine recitations. My work is all right till he gets 
to asking questions and wanting to know where I got this and 
where I got that. Then I feel like a fool." 

His recitation room was in the Observatory, outside of the 
campus, toward town. In this little room I spent many pleas- 
ant hours with him. When meal time came he would say, "Go 
to dinner with me," his house being just across the street from 
the Observatory. Here I was almost like one of his own house- 
hold. He was fond of a close, companionable conversation, 
and we had many a pleasant hour together. 

When I told him that I had made up my mind to go into the 
war, he manifested great interest in my welfare. When I 
bade him good-by, it seemed probable that I was going into the 
place of destruction, while he would be comparatively safe 
among the peaceful shades of the University. But when I 
returned to Tuscaloosa my friend was in his grave, while I 
had escaped the deadly havoc of war. While bathing in the 
Warrior River near the falls he was swept down by the current 
and drowned on July 22, 1863. This sad occurrence cast a 
gloom over the wide circle of his friends. 

Mrs. Benagh was Miss Mary Williams Collier, eldest daugh- 
ter of Governor Henry Watkins Collier. She was a lady of 
superior intelligence and culture, who entered into full sympa- 
thy with all his friendships. I was indebted to her for many 
kindnesses, as well as to her noble husband. When I bade her 
good-by in 1865, she gave me his gold pen as a memorial of 
my teacher and friend. Mrs. Benagh died August 27, 1899, 
and rests by her husband in Evergreen Cemetery, in Tusca- 
loosa. 



REMINISCENCES. 121 

I had the pleasure of teaching Henry, their only son, when 
I was at the head of a boys' school in the early seventies. I 
also had the honor of graduating their granddaughter. Miss 
Ethel Phillips, in 1891. It gave me great pleasure to be able 
to render any service to the children of these worthy people. 

Professor Archibald J. Battle. 

Professor Battle was in the chair of Greek during the year 
1859-60. For some reason, I know not what, he left the Uni- 
versity at the end of that year. I have been informed that he 
once taught in the East Alabama Female College, in Tuskegee. 
Later he was President of Judson Institute, Marion, Alabama, 
then of Mercer College (University), Macon, Georgia, and 
still later of Shorter College, Rome, Georgia. 

Professor Battle was an elegant gentleman, tall and rather 
slender, but of fine presence and deep, rich voice. He was a 
good preacher of the Baptist denomination. His sermons 
were clothed in easy, polished diction, which he read in a dis- 
tinct and graceful manner. He was a man of amiable dispo- 
sition, free from any disagreeable peculiarities and prejudices. 
I never heard him accused of partiality in his dealings with his 
students. He was destitute of those penetrating, discriminat- 
ing qualities of mind that make a good detective. This was 
shown by his incapacity to believe that the students had stolen 
his examination papers in June, i860, as related on a former 
page. 

I had no association with him except in the classroom. 
Under him I studied the "Iliad" of Homer, "Crito" of Plato, 
"CEdipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles, a course in Greek compo- 
sition, and a course of lectures on Greek and Roman mythol- 
ogy. I do not class him among my strongest teachers, but I 
do recall him as an accomplished Christian gentleman of the 
old Southern school. 

Professor William S. Wyman. 

Dr. Wyman was born in Montgomery, Alabama, November 
23, 1830. He received his preparatory education in private 



122 REMINISCENCES, 

schools in his native town. Before graduating at the Univer- 
sity of Alabama he took a year's course of study at Harvard 
College. He took the degree of A.B. in 185 1 and of A.M. in 
1853. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1882. 

He was elected to the chair of Latin in the University of 
Alabama in 1855, which he filled till 1905, a longer period than 
any other man in this State ever held the same position. The 
following statements will show in what estimation he was held 
by those who knew him best. Six times he declined the presi- 
dency of the University of Alabama (oftener than I have ever 
known the same position to be offered to the same man). 
Four times he served as President pro tern, during the frequent 
interregnums in the presidency. He consented to be President 
in 1901-02, but found that the duties of the office were too 
onerous for a man past threescore and ten years of age. He 
retired from all active college work in 1905 and rounded up his 
life in doing some literary work. This outline of facts can be 
predicted of no other man of whom I have any knowledge. 

A man of so much sturdy manliness and so many elements 
of popularity must have sprung from a virile and intelligent 
stock. He was a lineal descendant in the seventh generation 
of Francis Wyman, of the parish of West Mill, in the county 
of Hertford, England. This ancestor came to America in 
1637 and was one of the founders of Woburn, in Massachu- 
setts. His numerous descendants have formed a Wyman As- 
sociation, which holds a meeting in June every year and which 
is celebrated with a banquet — a fine way of perpetuating noble 
family traits. The subject of this sketch was a member of this 
Wyman Association. 

Dr. Wyman was a close student of the history of the South- 
ern and Gulf States in the original sources. He was a facile 
and entertaining writer and a very interesting man in conver- 
sation. He was the author of "Syntax of the Latin Compound 
Sentence," of "The Trial of Milo," and was a contributor to 
the Knickerbocker Magazine, the Century Magazine, New 
York Nation, Magazine of American History, etc. He was a 
member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, 



REMINISCENCES. 123 

He was one of the most thorough teachers in the University 
in my day. The students used to think that his whole being 
was cast in the subjunctive mood, but they finally learned that 
this was far from the truth. While he was uniformly cour- 
teous and considerate, he would endure no indignity nor take 
the slightest insult. He could, when provoked, quickly get out 
of the subjunctive mood of parleying into the indicative mood 
of action, ready for any emergency. Hence there was never 
any other than respectful deportment in his classroom. No 
student who ever studied under him will fail to remember that 
he found all the defects in examination papers. His grades 
were generally lower than those of any other man in the fac- 
ulty. 

Six of my teachers in the University — Battle, Benagh, Mal- 
let, Murfee, Vaughn, and Wyman — found their wives in Tus- 
caloosa, a good place to find good wives. On December 29, 
1853, ^^- ^- S. Wyman was married to Miss Melissa A., 
Bearing, who was his loyal companion through more than sixty 
years. "Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing." 

My teachers have all gone beyond the reach of any compli- 
mentary words of mine. The last one to go was Dr. Wyman, 
who died in 1915. Peace be to their ashes and a tribute of love 
to their memory! 

Professor John William Mallet. 

Professor Mallet was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1832, of 
English parents. He graduated from the University of Dub- 
lin in 1853, obtained his doctorate at the University of Goet- 
tingen, and was made Professor of Chemistry at the University 
of Alabama in 1855. Here he accomplished the first important 
work in physical chemistry ever performed in this country : the 
determination of the atomic weight of lithium, the lightest 
metallic element known. This work firmly established his rep- 
utation as a chemist of the first rank. During the Civil War 
the Confederate government had great need of competent 
chemists to direct the manufacture of explosives. Dr. Mallet 
was called into this service early in 1861. His distinguished 



124 REMINISCENCES. 

work in the field caused the government to promote him to the 
rank of lieutenant colonel. 

After the war Dr. Mallet went back to the classroom as 
Professor of Chemistry in the Medical Department of the Uni- 
versity of Louisiana. In 1868 he went to the University of 
Virginia. In 1880 he was chosen by the National Board of 
Health to consider and report upon the best methods to be used 
in the analysis of drinking waters. So well was this work done 
that it introduced him to a new field of usefulness. He became 
famous as an expert upon sanitary water supply. Not only was 
his advice eagerly sought far and wide in the planning of such 
supplies, but he was frequently called upon as an expert witness 
in legal cases in all parts of the country. Indeed, his reputation 
as an expert witness was but little less extensive than his fame 
as a scientist. 

In 1882 Dr. Mallet went to the University of Texas as Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry and Chairman of the Faculty and then to 
Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia ; but he returned to 
the University of Virginia in 1885 as the head of the school of 
chemistry. The highest honors, academic and otherwise, came 
to him. Among these was membership in every scientific or- 
ganization in America. The fact that he was always a British 
subject and had no need to deliberate as to the political party 
with which he would ally himself did not prevent science and 
its organizations from seeking the help of his genius in this 
country and in Europe. 

He was not only a most distinguished scientist, but he was 
a brilliant lecturer. He had the power of making his subject 
as clear as language and experiment could make it. He was 
also a master in the art of refined conversation. When he made 
reply to any remark, he always made it appropriate in substance 
and of corresponding length to the one addressed to him. If 
he was addressed in a short sentence, he answered in a short 
one; if in a long one, his reply was of similar length and al- 
ways app'ropriate in substance and admirable in spirit. 

It has always been a matter of regret that he left the Univer- 
sity before I finished my course, but of gratulation that I 



REMINISCENCES. 12$ 

sustained for a year and a half the relation of pupil to so ac- 
complished a gentleman. 

Dr. Mallet died at Charlottesville, Virginia, on November 
7, 19 12, of pulmonary embolism, in the eighty-first year of his 
age, and was buried in the University Cemetery. He was re- 
tired on the Carnegie Foundation in 19 10 as Professor Emer- 
itus of the University of Virginia. 

Professor Andre DeLoffre. 

This sturdy old Presbyterian Frenchman held the chair of 
Modern Languages in the University, embracing in my day only 
French and Spanish. He was not so brilliant a man as many 
of his countrymen. He lacked something of the native French 
vivacity. But he was a true man and knew well the subjects he 
taught, especially the French language. He tried very hard to 
impress upon his students the importance of studying French 
thoroughly. He would say in a very monotonous tone, with- 
out any accent on any word or syllable : "Young Zhentlemen, 
the study of French will 'dev'el-op' your minds." One wag of 
a student who found it difficult to learn the language said: 
"That is just what it does for my mind." 

In the early days of the military system in the University not 
only infantry tactics received much attention, but also artillery 
practice and sword exercises were taught. One day a number 
of the professors and officers were assembled in a hall where 
there were some swords used for drill. One of the men picked 
up a sword and made a banter to Professor DeLoffre to try 
his skill in fencing. The old man's eyes sparkled ; and, as quick 
as a thought, he snatched up a sword and in a few passes 
knocked the sword from his antagonist's hand and ran him 
back into a corner of the room, to the great amusement of the 
crowd. Before this no one knew that he was a skilled swords- 
man. He had been a French soldier in the Revolution of 1848. 

After the suspension of the University he taught French in 
Mobile. The last time I ever saw him I entertained him and 
Madame DeLoffre one evening during my residence in Mobile 
in 1875. His whereabouts passed out of my knowledge years 



126 REMINISCENCES. 

ago, and the French and Spanish I learned from him have well- 
nigh passed also ; but my respect for his memory abides. Au 
revoir. Professor DeLoffre ! 

Professor William J. Vaughn. 

A few weeks after the opening of the session in 1859 Mr. 
William J. Vaughn, who occupied the room just over mine, 
knocked at my door and requested me to call at his room when 
convenient. I supposed that he wanted to see me in regard to 
my studies, as he was my teacher in mathematics. At a con- 
venient hour I called, somewhat curious to know why he wished 
to see me. We talked pleasantly for a while, till I began to 
grow more anxious to know why he had invited me to his 
room. He finally said in a delicate way: "I learn from Dr. 
Garland that you are borrowing money to defray your ex- 
penses here. I did the same thing when I was in college, and 
I suffered myself to feel more cramped than there was any ne- 
cessity for. I don't want you to feel so. If at any time you 
get out of money, come to me and get what you need. I can 
let you have it without any inconvenience." This was a sur- 
prise and a revelation to me, to have a comparative stranger 
open his pocketbook for anything I might need. This was an 
offer as risky as it was generous. I might be honest and yet 
not know the value of money; or, still worse, I might be a 
respectable fellow in appearance and yet not have the power to 
exercise self-denial enough ever to pay a debt. He did not stop 
to consider these contingencies nor dry up the springs of his 
generosity by figuring on the chances of being beaten out of 
his money. He had a soul that knew how to relieve an embar- 
rassing situation which he had himself experienced. While 
waiting for my money to come from Choctaw County I called 
on him once and borrowed twenty dollars, which I returned as 
soon as I could conveniently. The money which he loaned to 
others was not always returned. He died poorer in property 
on account of his generous sympathy for his fellow men, but 
richer in love and honor on account of his faith in humanity. 

The first time I saw him I admired his dark hair, covering a 



REMINISCENCES. 127 

large head of fine form, associated with handsome features that 
gleamed in a hearty laugh when anything ludicrous occurred. 
Though rather below medium stature, he was, measured by any 
just standard of manhood, a person to be reckoned with. His 
manner was kind and considerate toward industrious and re- 
spectful students, but for a lazy and impudent fellow he had the 
keenest blade of reprimand that I have ever known sheathed in 
a man's tongue. He had no patience with fraud and duplicity. 
He had the power of putting his contempt for these obliquities 
in terms that could not be misunderstood and the courage to 
back his statements to the last limit. I saw his courage tested 
on several occasions later in life. I also witnessed that he was 
as ready to make apology for an injustice as to resent an insult. 

As I learned on mature acquaintance, he was my senior by 
ten months, he having been born in February and I in Decem- 
ber, 1834. We were both from South Alabama, from counties 
not far apart. We obtained our early education under similar 
circumstances, were graduated from the same institution, lived 
in the same dormitories four years, took our meals at the same 
table one year, lived in the same town from 1866 to 1871, and 
followed the same profession through life. 

He was made tutor of mathematics in the University of Ala- 
bama immediately after his graduation in 1857 and full profes- 
sor in i860. He held this position till the University was sus- 
pended, in 1865. He then filled in a most efficient manner the 
following positions : President of Tuscaloosa Female College 
from 1865 to 1866; President of Centenary College from 1866 
to 1 87 1 ; Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the University 
of Alabama from 1871 to 1873; President of the Tennessee 
Female College, in Franklin, Tennessee, from 1873 to 1878; 
and again Professor of Mathematics in the University of Ala- 
bama from 1878 to 1882. In 1882 he was made Professor of 
Mathematics and Astronomy in Vanderbilt University and held 
this position till he died, as the senior member of the faculty, 
December 17, 1912. 

Dr. Vaughn was, I believe, the most intellectual man I have 
ever been associated with. He knew mathematics, as it were. 



128 REMINISCENCES. 

by intuition. His mind was not, however, as is often the case, 
limited to this department of knowledge. He was equally- 
gifted in languages. He was master of several modern lan- 
guages, with a reading knowledge of many others. He was 
thoroughly acquainted with the classic languages of the an- 
cients and was the best-read man in general literature I have 
€ver known. He was not so well skilled in laboratory work as 
some of the modern specialists, but for a comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the whole field of science his superior was rarely found. 
He was the author of several treatises on mathematical sub- 
jects and was an honored member of the American Mathemat- 
ical Society, the American Historical Society, and the Southern 
Historical Society. 

Along with his superb intellectual gifts he had as true a 
heart as ever beat in a man's breast. Honest to the core, with- 
out any selfish ends to compass, free from suspicion of being 
overreached, he would rather be wronged than wrong any 
man. His friendships were not colored by hope of reward. 
His patriotism did not look for public office. His professional 
duties were not fed from the spring of popularity. Lightly 
estimating the money that came from his instruction, he was 
a model teacher who possessed in an eminent degree the power 
to make his pupils realize that they were worth while. With 
great confidence in his powers of achievement, he was withal 
one of the most modest of men. 

About fourteen years before his death he had the misfortune 
to lose his right leg above the knee and had to go on crutches 
the remainder of his life. In one of our last interviews the 
conversation turned on our early trials and our hard experi- 
ences during and after the war. Instead of bewailing our hard 
fate, he laughingly said: "Massey, you and I have been two 
lucky fellows." This remark was characteristic of the man. 
He maintained a brave, heroic spirit through all his trials, mis- 
fortunes, and sufferings as long as he had the conscious com- 
mand of his faculties. I called to see him just before his death. 
While his fine powers were in eclipse by physical disease, yet in 
a lucid moment he recognized me and grasped my hand In both 



REMINISCENCES. 129 

of his, showing that the same warm, friendly spirit lived in his 
feebly beating heart. He said, ''Give my love to the old girl," 
as he affectionately called my wife, who graduated under him 
in 1 87 1 and who always spoke of him with the deepest rever- 
ence and gratitude for what he had done in calling forth her 
intellectual life. I did not tell him that she had only a few days 
before passed over the river on whose margin he was lingering. 

No higher tribute can be paid him than the universal esti- 
mate of his old students, whose love for him was wonderful. 
Though his name may not be elaborately chiseled in monumen- 
tal marble, it will be affectionately cherished by thousands of 
grateful spirits so long as memory endures. I doubt if any 
teacher was ever held in higher esteem by his pupils than Wil- 
liam J. Vaughn. 

When it was known among the members of the "fraternity" 
(a small company of intimate friends at the University) that 
Miss Abbie Scott was engaged to Professor Vaughn, Miss 
Lou Garland, a member of the fraternity, remarked that 
Miss Scott had evinced a more charming personality than any 
other lady she knew, for she had rescued from the dangers of 
old bachelorism a literary recluse who had never before mani- 
fested any tender sentiments toward the fair sex. Miss Gar- 
land's praise of Miss Scott was strictly just. Fifty years of in- 
timate acquaintance with her prompts me to mention this high 
compliment of her young friend. 

Miss Abbie Maria Scott is the daughter of David and 
Stella (Houghton) Scott, who were residents of Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama. Her father came from South Carolina and was one 
of the early settlers of the State. Her mother, Stella Hough- 
ton, came from Vermont and was a sister of H. O. Houghton, 
who established the publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin & 
Company, of Boston. 

Miss Abbie Maria Scott and Professor William J. Vaughn 
were married August 17, 1865. During the forty-seven years 
of her married life Mrs. Vaughn was "the strength of her 
husband's heart, who did safely trust her." Through all the 
experiences of suffering and sorrow, as well as of Joy and 
9 



I30 REMINISCENCES, 

gladness, she was the cheerful light that shone in his home. 
Around it she still sheds a beautiful radiance ''like the evening 
star shining over the place where his sun went down." 

Dr. Vaughn always supported the Church of which he was a 
member and attended its services when he was able. But he 
had no patience with mere formalism in religion. His reli- 
gious trust was in the supreme Source of all good, as may be 
seen from the following lines, which he copied from an English 
paper sometime before his death : 

DoMiNus Illuminatio Mea. 
"In the hour of death, after this life's whim, 
When the heart beats low and the eyes grow dim, 
And pain has exhausted every limb, 
The lover of the Lord shall trust in him. 
When the will has forgotten the lifelong aim, 
And the mind can only disgrace its fame, 
And a man is uncertain of his own name. 
The power of the Lord shall fill his frame. 

When the last sigh is heaved and the last tear is shed, 

And the coffin is waiting beside the bed, 

And the widow and child forsake the dead. 

The angel of the Lord shall lift his head. 

For even the purest delight may pall. 

The power must fail, and the pride must fall, 

And the love of the dearest friends grow small — 

But the glory of the Lord is all in all." 

These professors of 1859-60 were only eight in number; 
but for ability, fidelity, and efficiency they were, I believe, not 
often equaled. Each man taught his own department without 
any assistance. They were never absent from their recitations 
except for sickness, which very rarely occurred. When we 
went to recitations we fully expected to find the professor in 
his seat, the one man we had to deal with in his department. 
While no one of them was a man of inferior ability, at least 
six of them were men of superior talents, as I have been con- 
vinced by my association with men through the experience of 
a long life. I have always been glad to have known them so 
intimately. The University at that time had only about one 
hundred and fifty students, so that the necessity for assistant 
professors was not so great as it is in larger institutions. 



CHAPTER XII. 

INTRODUCTION OF THE MILITARY SYSTEM. 

Colonel Caleb Huse — Colonel James Thomas Murfee — Captain C. L. 
Lumsden — Captain J. H. Morrison — Organization of the Alabama Corps 
of Cadets — Appointed Cadet Quartermaster — Dr. Basil Manly and Wife 
— The Secession of South Carolina. 

AT the close of the scholastic year of 1859-60 I spent the 
vacation in Choctaw County. On my return to the Uni- 
versity the first of September I found that the military system 
had been introduced and that everything was being adjusted to 
the new order. Three new military men had been added to the 
faculty: Colonel Caleb Huse, from the United States Military 
Academy, and Major James T. Murfee and Captain C. L. 
Lumsden, from the Virginia Military Institute. Colonel Huse 
was to be the Commandant and Professor of Chemistry, Major 
Murfee was to be Commander of Company A and Professor 
of Mathematics, and Captain Lumsden was to be Commander 
of Company B and Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Aft- 
er the opening, the number of students became so large that it 
was necessary to make three companies; and another officer, 
Captain J. H. Morrison, from the Virginia Military Institute, 
was added. I shall anticipate and speak of these officers here. 

Colonel Caleb Huse. 

Colonel S. W. John, who read the first draft of my reminis- 
cences, called my attention to some errors in my article on 
Colonel Huse. I have since consulted the Congressional Li- 
brary, the United States Military Academy, the Association of 
Graduates of the Academy, and Colonel Huse's "Reminis- 
cences"; and I am now prepared to speak more accurately in 
regard to his career. 

Caleb Huse was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Feb- 
ruary II, 183 1. He was appointed cadet in the United States 
Military Academy in 1847 ^nd graduated in 1851, the seventh 

(131) 



132 REMINISCENCES. 

in his class of forty-two members. He was commissioned bre- 
vet second lieutenant in the Third Artillery and stationed at 
Key West, Florida, where he married Miss Harriet Pinckney. 
The following year he was ordered back to West Point as As- 
sistant Professor of Chemistry and remained on duty there till 
1859. During this time he served under Colonel Robert E. Lee 
and became one of the most ardent admirers of that great man. 

In 1859 he went to Europe to make a special study of ord- 
nance. On his return he was appointed on an army board to 
test the merits of rifled cannon. As first lieutenant he was on 
the rolls of the garrison of Fort Sumter, He found also an 
appointment as commandant of cadets at the University of 
Alabama. To enable him to accept this position without finally 
severing his connection with the army, the authorities of the 
University had obtained from the Secretary of War a leave of 
absence for him till May, 1861. H all went well, he was to 
resign at that time. On these terms he accepted the place and 
was commissioned colonel by the governor of the State, 

My acquaintance with him began on his coming to the Uni- 
versity. He was an austere-looking man. He did not have 
any too much of the sauviter in modo in his composition ; but 
he was just in his dealings with the cadets and, as will appear 
from his record, he was a brave and true man who stood by his 
convictions regardless of the consequences. 

Two or three weeks after the opening of the encampment 
some restive students who chafed under any kind of discipline 
made an effort to stir up prejudice against Colonel Huse be- 
cause, as they said, he was a "d d Yankee." They added 

tinder to the already hot blood of some of their parents whose 
feelings, like a powder mine, needed only to be touched off to 
make an explosion. It was just a few weeks before the Presi- 
dential election of i860, when the whole country was excited 
over the political situation. Dr. Garland told Colonel Huse 
that there was a mutiny brewing in the camp whose object was 
to run him out of the State, and that an ugly feature of the 
thing was the fact that the mutiny was encouraged by people 
on the outside. The Doctor, fully aware how unpleasant this 



REMINISCENCES. 133 

trouble might become to Colonel Huse, felt it his duty to state 
the case plainly and to give him an opportunity of resigning if 
he chose to do so. He told the Doctor that he would willingly 
resign rather than be a cause of trouble if there was any mem- 
ber of the faculty or of the Board of Trustees that wished to 
be rid of him. When he was assured that there was no objec- 
tion to him among the authorities of the University, he said : 
"I will not resign. As some of the students and their parents 
have threatened to run me out of the State, I will put the re- 
sponsibility on them." 

Nothing came of this threatened mutiny; but the incident, 
which was liable to cause trouble under the circumstances, 
reveals the candor of Dr. Garland and the courage of Colo- 
nel Huse. As soon as the corps was organized and the admi- 
rable discipline was seen to be in striking contrast to the disor- 
derly conduct of former years, the town people were delighted 
with the good order, and Colonel Huse became popular. 

The military system was creating considerable increase in 
the University budget and was not bringing in any additional 
revenue. What was to be done was a question that would 
not down when pay day came around. Dr. Garland was can- 
vassing the question of presenting the corps to the legislature 
and of asking for an annual appropriation to defray the ex- 
penses of the military system. This did not meet the approval 
of some of the faculty. Some of the patrons also objected to 
such an unusual move. Fears were entertained that the disci- 
pline of the corps could not stand the strain of passing through 
Mobile and of going through the entertainments that would be 
proffered in Montgomery. Drunkenness and demoralization 
were dreaded. Colonel Huse was every inch a man. He knew 
his power as a disciplinarian. He told the Doctor that he would 
be responsible for the good order of the corps. The trip to 
Montgomery was made without a single breach of discipline, 
to the great delight of Colonel Huse and everybody concerned. 
The expedition will be described on a future page. 

On the breaking out of the war he was confronted with a 
g-rave and, to him, a very momentous question. Had he con- 



134 REMINISCENCES. 

suited his personal interests, he would have left the State of 
his adoption and received high command from his native State 
of Massachusetts, where he was looked upon as one of the 
most promising young officers of the army. But Huse was 
moved only by the highest principles in everything he did. He 
thought that the South was right in its contention, and he 
placed his sword at the disposal of President Davis. 

On the 1st of April he received a telegram from Secretary 
Mallory, of the Confederate navy, to "come to Montgomery 
and take a commission for active service." On arriving in 
Montgomery he was told that the President had designated 
him to go to Europe for the purchase of arms and military sup- 
plies and was asked when he could go. He replied that, of 
course, he could go immediately; but that, if any preparations 
were to be made, he would like to return to his family before 
starting. The Secretary said: "Be back in ten days." He 
returned to Tuscaloosa and offered his resignation as com- 
mandant of the cadets. On the morning of the 12th of April 
he rode back into Montgomery on the top of a stagecoach. 
When near the city they met a man on horseback shouting: 
"Beauregard has fired on Fort Sumter." This created great 
excitement in Montgomery, as it did in Tuscaloosa and 
throughout the whole country. 

On his way to Europe he arranged to go through Charles- 
ton, that he might see the effect of the artillery fire upon Fort 
Sumter. With two young captains whom he had known at 
West Point, he visited the fort. He says : "H the United States 
government deliberately intended to force a war and thus set- 
tle once for all the entire question between the North and the 
South, no strategy could have been more effectual than that of 
sacrificing Sumter exactly as it was sacrificed. The whole 
affair could not have been arranged with greater shrewdness 
and finesse. Anderson and his officers were made to appear as 
heroes. The North was completely unified, and the same can 
be said of the South. The lines were now distinctly and defi- 
nitely drawn, and every man from Maine to Georgia must de- 
clare for the government or against it." 



REMINISCENCES. 135 

He passed through Baltimore on Sunday morning, April 21, 
the day the men of the Federal command who had been killed 
in the ajffray on Friday, the 19th, were to be buried. The ten- 
sion of feeling was almost breathless. On reaching New York 
he found everybody excited ; and the Trenholm Brothers, from 
whose bank he was to draw money for his passage, were so 
terrified that they were afraid to recognize him. He finally, 
through the kind ofiices of Captain Wellsman, drew five hun- 
dred dollars in gold and made his way through the Northern 
States to Portland, Canada, whence he sailed for England. 

During the first years of the war he was very successful in 
securing and shipping into the Confederacy large quantities of 
guns, ammunition, and military supplies. On one occasion he 
beat the United States agent to one hundred thousand Austrian 
rifles of the latest pattern and sixty pieces of field artillery and 
large supplies of ammunition. 

He proved to be so honest and capable an agent for the 
Confederate government that they sent him a carte blanche 
order on Fraser, Trenholm & Company, of Liverpool, who 
were the intelligent and trustworthy agents of the Richmond 
government throughout the entire war. This order was sewed 
between the soles of a boot which was worn by a German who 
sailed from New York. On his arrival in England the stitches 
were cut and the order delivered to Colonel Huse. This shows 
how impossible it is to keep information from passing through 
any lines that may be drawn. 

He speaks in very complimentary terms of Hon. William L. 
Yancey, Commissioner to England, and of Commander James 
D. Bulloch, who had charge of all naval affairs. With both 
these gentlenrjen he had close business relations. Commander 
Bulloch was an uncle of Ex-President Roosevelt. Colonel 
Huse assisted Commander Bulloch in securing vessels for ship- 
ping supplies into Confederate ports. But there is no mention 
in his "Reminiscences" of his having had any part In the nego- 
tiations for the cruiser Alabama. 

Although he handled large sums of money for the Confed- 
eracy, he used none of it for himself beyond his expenses. 



136 REMINISCENCES. 

When the war closed, he found himself with a large family and 
without money or employment. He informed Dr. E. A. Smith, 
who met him in Paris in 1867, that he was sometimes in dire 
straits and did not know what he would have done if some gen- 
erous friends in England had not lent him money. He could 
not return to the United States, because the Federal authorities 
believed he had in his possession large sums of money belong- 
ing to the Confederacy, and he would on this account be liable 
to arrest. 

When amnesty was declared, he returned to the United 
States to try to make a living. He had no profession and no 
training that fitted him for any other business than that of a 
soldier. Though just as true and brave, he seems not to have 
had the resiliency and adaptability of Generals Fitzhugh Lee 
and Joe Wheeler, who knew how to get back into the service of 
the United States army. Finally, in 1876, he started a school 
near West Point to prepare boys for the Military Academy. 
His checkered career ended in death on March 11, 1905. 

There is something in his honest and manly character that 
not only appeals to my respect and admiration, but also excites 
a vein of pathos and regret. He evidently was a disappointed 
man who went to his grave without a reward adequate to his 
merits. 

Colonel James Thomas Murfee. 

On the resignation of Colonel Huse, Major Murfee was 
made commandant with the rank of colonel. He was a man of 
untiring energy and very systematic in all his work, a man of 
details, who gave due attention to the practical side of life. I 
was in his class one term and was impressed with the constant 
trend of his instruction to bring every principle of mathematics 
to convenient formulas for practical use. 

Sometime in the summer or fall of 1862 he was elected 
lieutenant colonel of the Forty-First Alabama Regiment, but 
soon returned to the University because his services were so 
much needed there. At that time it was difficult to get efficient 
military men to remain in the school on account of the pressing 



REMINISCENCES. 137 

need of their services in the field and on account of the hi^h 
tension of the war feehng-. I am sure that Colonel Murfee 
would have been a success if he had remained in the active 
service, but I believe his talents lay in the educational field 
rather than in the arena of war. 

Soon after the close of the war he was employed as archi- 
tect to reconstruct the University buildings. He completed 
Wood's Hall in what is now known as the Quadrangle. 
But the whole State government, including the institution, 
soon went into the hands of the Reconstruction party, which 
did nothing worth while with the University for several 
years. 

In 1 87 1 Colonel Murfee was made President of Howard 
College, at Marion, Alabama, where he rendered excellent 
service in raising the standard of education during a period of 
sixteen years. When the college was moved to Birmingham, 
in 1887, he declined to leave Marion and set to work to found 
the Marion Institute on the old college foundation. This he 
left to his sons, who are proving themselves the worthy suc- 
cessors to a man who faithfully served his generation for half 
a century. 

On account of age and deafness he retired from active work 
in 1906 on the Carnegie Foundation. His death occurred in 
Miami, Florida, in April, 1912, in the seventy-ninth year of 
his age, and he was gathered to his fathers. He was an hon- 
ored member of the Baptist Church, a Christian without secta- 
rian bias, a patriot without sectional bitterness, and a man with 
positive convictions of right and manly courage to carry them 
out. More of his sort will make a better world. 

He was born in 1833 in Southampton County, Virginia. In 
1853 he was graduated from the Virginia Military Institute 
without a single demerit and with the highest honors of his 
class. After graduation he taught in Lynchburg, Virginia, and 
in Madison College, Pennsylvania, till he came to Alabama, in 
i860. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him 
by Furman University in 1874 and also by the University of 
Alabama in 1907. 



138 REMINISCENCES. 

Captain C. L. Lumsden. 

Captain C. L. Lumsden was one of the most graceful drill- 
masters I ever saw. In November, 1861, he organized in 
Tuscaloosa a battery known as Lumsden's Battery. It saw 
extremely hard service and lost heavily in the battles of Cor- 
inth, Farmington, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, 
Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, and Nashville. As the official 
reports show, it was mentioned many times for gallant and 
meritorious conduct. Its history will stand prominent in the 
records of the war. 

After the surrender Captain Lumsden engaged in the saw- 
mill business and, having passed through the havoc of war, 
was killed by an accident in his sawmill. 

Captain Morrison also went into the army, but I lost sight 
of him. 

So much for the officers who entered the University in the 
fall of i860. In speaking of them, as of the other professors 
to whom reference has been made, I have had to run ahead of 
the current of events in the history of the institution. 

Organization of the Alabama Corps of Cadets. 

Early in September, i860, about two hundred of us assem- 
bled at the University for the purpose of organizing the Ala- 
bama Corps of Cadets. We went into camp on the southwest- 
ern quarter of the campus to live in tents for six weeks and be 
drilled in regular army style. Dr. Garland had secured from 
some party in Montgomery a colored fifer, whose name was 
Gabe, and a colored drummer, whose name was Neil. These 
important attaches sounded reveille at five-thirty in the morn- 
ing, when we had to rise in haste, like the Hebrews in Egypt, 
and be ready at five forty-five for our slices of light bread and 
tin cups of black coffee prepared by Arthur, the janitor. This 
early lunch was thought to be a preventive against chills, which 
might be contracted from the early morning air and the heavy 
dew on the high grass. As soon as these rations could be dis- 
patched we were ready for an hour's drill before breakfast. 



REMINISCENCES. 139 

Everything was done in a sharp, quick, snappy style. We 
were all privates in the ranks — seniors, juniors, sophomores 
of the past year, as well as the new recruits who were entering 
the University for the first time. There was nothing heard all 
day long but "Attention!" "Eyes right!" "Eyes left!" "Head 
up!" "Little fingers on seam of pants!" "Forward, march!" 
"Double-quick!" and "Halt!" till it became dreadfully monoto- 
nous. It struck some of the old students as a most incongru- 
ous thing in a University which stood for the humanities and 
high culture. And, what we did not quite comprehend at first, 
Dr. Garland had his tent in the camp and seemed to be "de- 
lighted" with our performance. 

After some days of squad drill, we began to be grouped into 
sections and companies and, by the end of six weeks, into a 
battalion. We were dressed in gray uniforms bestudded with 
brass buttons and black military hats with "A. C. C." in front, 
encircled with brazen eagles and topped with gay pompons, and 
carried bright swords and Springfield muskets in our hands. 
Uniformity of movement and precision of evolution had 
arisen out of the undisciplined crowd of a few weeks before. 

We were now as much pleased with the marvelous transfor- 
mation as we had been disgusted with the initiatory steps of 
the squad drill. The glamour of military uniforms, the har- 
mony of movement, the precision of evolution, and the stirring 
strains of martial music which Gabe and Neil put their whole 
souls into — all these made our blood tingle with the military 
spirit, especially when the campus was filled with crowds of 
admiring lady spectators, making us feel the force of one of 
Dr. Garland's remarks : "Venus always showed a penchant for 
Mars." The novelty of the military feature made it very at- 
tractive during the first few months, and later on the rising war 
spirit added to its interest. These incentives, acting on a body 
of high-strung young men, generally from the best families of 
the State, soon made the Alabama Corps of Cadets one of the 
best-drilled battalions in the whole country. It was frequently 
said by good judges that the drilling of the corps was equal to 
that of the Virginia Military Institute and the United States 



I40 REMINISCENCES. 

Military Academy. Of this I cannot speak from personal 
knowledge, never having seen the evolutions of those two 
noted military schools. But I am sure that our drilling was as 
nearly perfect as it was possible to make it out of the very best 
material, handled by thoroughly capable officers, all incited by 
motives that hardly ever occur twice in a century. 

About the middle of October we left our tents, went into 
barracks, and organized the academic work for the year. I 
roomed this year in the north end room on the second floor of 
Franklin Barracks. My roommates were Fuller Manly, Clar- 
ence H, Ellerbe, and J. C. Riggs, all fine fellows. 

Appointed Cadet Quartermaster. 

One of the first things done was to appoint the cadet officers. 
Quartermaster fell to my lot, with the rank of first lieutenant. 
The duties of this office were considerable, as I had charge of 
the quartermaster's store, which contained everything the ca- 
dets needed in the way of clothing except the gray uniforms. 
At certain regular hours the store was opened, when the cadets 
brought their cadet books, with the articles they needed already 
charged upon the books by Captain Gibbs, the State Quarter- 
master and Treasurer. My business was to give out the goods 
just as they were charged on each book. I soon had everything 
arranged so that, with the assistance of the quartermaster ser- 
geant, it was an easy matter to attend to the business. 

These duties brought me into close association with Captain 
Gibbs, whom the boys called "Old Growly." Students are 
always quick to embody in a ludicrous, and sometimes even 
spiteful, sobriquet any striking peculiarities of their teachers 
and officers. Captain Gibbs was an Englishman and had a 
deep-toned voice which frequently expressed his impatience at 
the irrelevant questions and unreasonable demands of the ca- 
dets. Hence came the expressive but uncomplimentary sobri- 
quet. But I wish to state that Captain Gibbs was a very just 
and kind-hearted man, even if he did not always manifest a 
sweet temper through soft tones of voice. 

The scheme of literary studies for the year 1 860-61 was 



REMINISCENCES. 141 

different from tliat of the old regime in which there were no 
electives, each class being obliged to take the regular course 
prescribed for graduation. The new order granted some elec- 
tion of studies. This made a transition period in the University 
in the plan of studies as well as on account of the changes 
caused by the introduction of the military system. Under the 
new order the scheme of classes was difficult to arrange and 
in some cases made it hard on the students because of too many 
heavy recitations coming close together. On Wednesdays I 
had five of my heaviest recitations from 8 a.m. to i p.m. — ^five 
hours on a stretch. I had to prepare for all these on the two 
or three preceding days and nights. This crowding together 
of so many recitations grew partly out of the fact that I was 
carrying an extra study. After I got used to this arrange- 
ment, I did not object to it. It taught me how to get ready for 
this extra draft and how to concentrate all my resources for 
the occasion. 

I found also that the regular habits of sleep and exercise 
enforced by the military system were a good thing for me. 
Nothing but this actual experience could have made me believe 
that there was a great deal of good in the military system. 
Through this experience I learned that unexpected good comes 
to us by the patient endurance of unavoidable inconveniences 
and hardships. I was becoming too much fossilized in my 
notions and habits. I am glad that I saw this transition period 
in the University from the old regime to the new. The transi- 
tion in myself was as great as that in the institution. It has 
made me less afraid of changes than I would otherwise have 
been. It has put me in sympathy with the changes that are 
constantly going on in nature around us and in mind and spirit 
within us. Nothing is in a state of fixity. Everything is in a 
stage of growth. Whatever promotes growth is a good thing, 
whether it is to our liking or not. Of course there is danger 
in the change which growth produces unless directed by intel- 
ligence, but there is more danger in a state of stagnation. 

The military regime gave us no time for stagnation. Re- 
veille sounded at six o'clock, beginning with long roll. 



142 REMINISCENCES. 

which lasted three minutes. During these three minutes we 
had to jump into our clothes, run downstairs, and get into line 
ready to answer to our names, the calHng of which began the 
moment the drum ceased. We then had a half hour to dress 
properly, make up our beds, and clean up our rooms, all of 
which we had to do ourselves, and so clean they had to be that 
nothing in the rooms would soil a white glove. Quiet reigned 
for a half hour, in which we were expected to study in our 
rooms before prayers in the chapel, then we went to breakfast 
in the mess hall. Recitations and study from 8 to i ; one hour 
for dinner; recitations and study from 2 to 4; drill from 4 to 
5 ; recreation from 5 to 6 ; supper from 6 to 6 : 45 ; recreation 
from 6 : 45 to 7 : 30 ; study from 7 : 30 to 9 : 30 ; preparation for 
retiring from 9: 30 to 10; taps at 10, lights out, and all ciuiet — 
so ran the days. 

I soon found my work going more smoothly than I had ever 
had it run before. I was agreeably surprised at this and at- 
tributed it largely to the regular habits induced by the military 
system. But the good results were offset in some degree. We 
did not do so much reading as we did under the old system of 
1859-60, and the interest we took in our literary societies large- 
ly died out under military rule. This was, no doubt, partly due 
to the growing interest in the military feature inspired by the 
prospects of war. 

Dr. Basil Manly and Wife. 

There was no break in my work except for a short spell of 
sickness I had during the fall. No hospital had been fitted up 
yet such as was provided later. I was confined to my room in 
the barracks. One of my roommates was young Fuller Manly, 
the youngest son of Dr. Basil Manly, who was at that time in 
charge of the Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa. When Fuller 
went home on Saturday afternoon, he told his mother that I 
was sick in my room at the University. She immediately sent 
her carriage out for me, though a stranger, and took me to her 
home and treated me just as if I had been her own son. This 
act of kindness showed me the great warm hearts of these two 



REMINISCENCES. 143 

splendid old people, a generous act that I cannot let pass with- 
out special mention. 

Dr. Manly had been the President of the University for 
eighteen years, from 1837 to 1855. During this period he had 
taught hundreds of young men whom he affectionately called 
his sons. 

He was a man of unusual ability. He was noted as much 
for his superior common sense and his childlike simplicity as 
for his great intellectuality. He was one of the best preachers 
of his day. He did not, like Bascom, sweep everything be- 
fore him in a tornado of eloquence, nor, like Pierce, win by 
graceful and persuasive oratory. His style was at the opposite 
pole. With a fine head crowned with white hair, a fresh, be- 
nignant face, large, expressive blue eyes, a soft, winsome voice, 
and gestures as artless as a child's, when he stood up to preach, 
spiritual power descended from the pulpit like the dews of Her- 
mon. The following quotation is from West's "History of 
Methodism in Alabama" : "For 1838 Tuscaloosa was supplied 
by Rev. Charles Hardy. For two months, until Mr. Hardy 
reached Tuscaloosa, the Rev. Basil Manly, a Baptist preacher 
who had just been installed as President of the University of 
Alabama, preached for the Methodists at the morning service 
on Sunday. The congregation thought him devotedly pious 
and of great simplicity." 

Glorious old man! I am glad that I knew him and his good 
wife, who well matched him in every fine quality of soul. In 
the dark days of Reconstruction, in 1867, when it seemed that 
everything was going to the bad in the Black Belt of Alabama, 
I felt the depression of the gloomy situation and thought of 
going West and growing up with a new country. I believed 
that letters of introduction from two such well-known men as 
Dr. Manly and Dr. Garland would give me some recognition 
among strangers. Dr. Manly wrote me a very complimentary 
recommendation; but in a separate note he cautioned me 
against relying much on any one's recommendation, since 
this indicated a lack of confidence In one's self. When I 
read the note I felt the blood come into my face, for I saw 



144 REMINISCENCES. 

that he had guarded me against the tendency of young people 
(and sometimes older ones) to think that others can raise them 
to positions of profit and honor by recommendations. Dr. 
Manly's suggestion deepened the determination, ah'eady strong, 
to make my own way, trusting in God's help alone. Since then 
I have written hundreds of recommendations. I have never 
written one, I believe, without thinking of Dr. Manly's letter. 
Recommendations are right and proper on going into a new 
place merely as letters of introduction, but I have very often 
felt that the desire to be overmuch recommended indicates a 
lack of that genuine faith in one's self that must constitute the 
basis of success in any line of work. I would say to young 
people: "Never lie down on anybody's recommendation, but 
rely on yourselves and cultivate the good will of your fellow 
men." 

To return to the year 1 860-61, I studied surveying and 
engineering under Colonel Murfee, mechanics under Professor 
Benagh, chemistry with Dr. Mallet and Colonel Huse, English 
with Professor Pratt, French with Professor DeLoffre, and 
Hardee's tactics with different officers. 

About the first of December we had a prize-shoo^g with 
our new Springfield muskets. These were rifled, half-inch- 
bore guns loaded from the muzzle with cartridges carrying a 
conically shaped ounce lead missile and fired by percussion 
caps. The loading and capping was a slow business compared 
with the modern breech-loading arrangement, but these guns 
shot with surprising accuracy for a distance of several hundred 
yards. We had two or three practices before the day set for 
the prize-shooting. I found that the glitter of the hind sight 
dazzled my eyes so that it was difficult to take an accurate 
"sight." I had learned in my boyhood that the hind sight of 
a rifle should be colored dark; so I colored the hind sight of my 
musket with ink. On the final day of the shooting we were to 
shoot at a "bull's eye" at a distance of two hundred yards. I 
won the prize (a gold lace star) awarded to the best marks- 
man. This was due to good eyes, steady nerves, and rifle prac- 
tice in my boyhood. 



REMINISCENCES. 145 

The Secession of South Carolina and the Sensation It 

Created. 

In the latter part of December, i860, when South CaroHna 
seceded and Governor Moore called a convention (provided 
for by the Legislature) to determine what Alabama would do, 
excitement began to run high. While many followed Mr. 
Yancey in his purpose to take the State out of the Union, many 
others at that time strenuously opposed this plan. Mr. Yan- 
cey's determination and eloquence prevailed ; and when the 
convention passed the ordinance of secession on January 11, 
1861, the whole State was in a ferment of mingled feelings of 
joy and sorrow, wonder and regret. I thought that we were 
taking a momentous step whose consequences no one could 
foretell. Even if we should be able to withdraw from the 
Union peaceably, I felt that we were cutting loose from a gov- 
ernment which I had been taught to regard with patriotic pride. 
If we should succeed in establishing the principle of secession, 
what would keep South Carolina or Alabama or any other 
State from withdrawing from any Southern government which 
we might form? Would we not be in danger of having a lot 
of weak little governments fighting among themselves and lia- 
ble to fall a prey to some European power? Others may have 
felt the same way. Such feelings, however, were rather the 
silent undercurrent. Like the waves on the surface of the sea, 
the manifestations of sympathy with the trend of events were 
more noisy than deep and serious thought would have justified. 
Hot-blooded young people are always fond of excitement. The 
students of the University were generally very much elated at 
the prospective changes which they imagined would open new 
enterprises to them. If war should come, they expected to take 
a prominent part in it. The vision of military glory captivated 
their imaginations. 
10 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Corps Presented to the Legislature — The Trend of Affairs — Speech of 
Judge A. B. Meek — Lack of Vision in Our Leaders — Firing on Fort 
Sumter — The Invasion of Virginia — Sent to Montgomery to Drill 
Troops— First Visit to Prattville— Dr. S. P. Smith— Mrs. Adelaide 
Julia (Allen) Smith — Promoted to State Lieutenant — Sent to North 
Alabama to Drill Troops — My Classmates. 

T N the last week of January Dr. Garland published the order 
■*- that the whole corps should go to Montgomery to be pre- 
sented to the Governor and the Legislature. We left in a heavy 
rainstorm, escorted from the University to the boat by the 
Warrior Guards, commanded by Captain Robert Emmet 
Rodes, who rose to the rank of major general in the Confed- 
erate army and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness, in 
September, 1864. We went from Tuscaloosa to Mobile on a 
stern-wheel boat called the Cherokee. To carry our clothes 
and blankets, we were ordered to take one trunk for each room. 
Being cadet quartermaster, I had charge of the baggage, which 
went all right, except that two pieces failed to be transferred 
from one boat to the other in Mobile. These pieces were found 
on the first boat when we returned to Mobile. I little dreamed 
then what trouble I was destined to have in the years to come 
when I should have to look after the baggage of hundreds of 
girls. 

On arrival in Mobile we marched from the boat to the Battle 
House dressed in our best clothes. There is something in 
military dress and equipage that elicits attention. There is 
still more in the serious object to which these external signs all 
point. When we marched back from the hotel to the boat in 
our glittering uniforms, with our cadet flag displaying "A. C. 
C." on its silken folds, we were the cynosure of all eyes. The 
quick step, timed to the drum and fife, had drawn attention 
from all quarters, showing that it was a novel sight in the early 
days of 1861. 

The trip from Mobile to Montgomery was made on a fine, 
(146) 



REMINISCENCES. 147 

new double-decker called the Southern Republic. She was 
making her maiden trip and was as anxious to show her fine 
qualities as we were to display ours. She was equipped with 
a calliope, which played "Dixie" and other stirring tunes al- 
most constantly during the trip of two days and nights. 

There were no telephones then, very little telegraphic com- 
munication, and few rapidly distributed morning papers with 
bold headlines, such as we now have. To get quick and accu- 
rate news, one had to go in person to the scene of the excite- 
ment. Hence the boat was crowded with intelligent and prom- 
inent people going to the capital to see what the outcome of all 
this excitement might be. They were not backward in showing 
us marked attention. We had the opportunity of forming 
many acquaintances among the leading people of the State. 

After leaving Mobile, Dr. Garland summoned Richard H. 
Clarke ("Dick," we called him), J. C. Knox, and myself. He 
told us that he wanted us to draw up a petition to the Legisla- 
ture soliciting an appropriation for the better equipment of the 
corps. He gave us the line of argument which he thought ad- 
visable. He said he wished us to write the petition in our own 
style; for if he should write it, the earmarks of his style would 
be too apparent. He desired the petition to come from the 
students and not from himself. We all wrote something and 
turned the papers over to Clarke, who composed well and wrote 
a beautiful hand. Before we reached Montgomery we read the 
paper to Dr. Garland, who passed a favorable comment on our 
work. At the proper time it was presented to the officials of 
the State. Of course Dr. Garland presented some arguments 
from his standpoint and in his own forcible style. What influ- 
ence our petition had, I do not know ; but an appropriation was 
made by a unanimous vote of the Legislature. 

Speech of Judge A. B. Meek. 

On our arrival in Montgomery we marched to our quarters 
in a large hall with some adjoining rooms on Main Street 
(now Dexter Avenue), about halfway between Court Square 
and the Capitol. Here we had comfortable quarters compared 



148 REMINISCENCES. 

with what many of us were to have during the next four years. 
We drilled on the streets more or less every day. It was ar- 
ranged on one of the days that we should be presented to the 
Legislature. This august body was collected on the balcony 
and on the steps and in the yard in front of the Capitol. After 
we had performed some evolutions such as the small space and 
the slope of the ground would allow and had gone through the 
manual of arms (which elicited great applause), we were ad- 
dressed by Judge A. B. Meek. We should have been pleased 
to hear Mr. Yancey, as he was the great light in the political 
firmament ; but I believe that he never made speeches unless he 
had something worth while to speak about. Judge Meek was 
a poet and could make a pretty speech on any subject or even 
without a subject. In his address of about fifteen minutes I 
recall one striking figure. As I remember it, the figure ran 
thus : 

On December 20 a new star appeared in our political sky conspicuous 
for its brilliancy [South Carolina]. Twenty days later another arose 
whose radiance equaled that of the first [Mississippi]. The next evening 
still another came forth with its mellow light [Florida]. Then on the 
evening following a fourth lent its effulgence to the rapidly increasing 
cluster [Alabama]. Eight days later there emerged from the east a sister 
star whose cloudless orb adds a new glory to this. charming group [Geor- 
gia]. When lo ! in the west two more splendid luminaries [Louisiana and 
Texas] completed the constellation of seven stars which are destined to 
shine in our political firmament like the Pleiades in the heavens. 

Lack of Vision in Our Leaders. 

This poetic conception expressed in the eloquence of Judge 
Meek as he stood before us in his gigantic figure captivated our 
impressible imaginations. But I do not now think, after 
more than fifty years of experience and observation, that it 
expressed a wise political policy. Slavery was not in theory 
made the basis of this Southern plan of government, it is true ; 
but, practically, it had been up to this time the controlling ele- 
ment in its inception. But for slavery, the attempt to form a 
Southern Confederacy would not have been made. Everything 
else could have been settled without war. It seems now that 
our leaders ought to have seen that a permanent government 



REMINISCENCES. 149 

could not stand on such a foundation. Thomas Jefferson in his 
latter years feared the consequences of the growing power of 
slavery and said that the thought of it "alarmed him like the 
sound of a fire bell at night." Henry Clay advocated gradual 
emancipation extending through fifty years. General Robert 
E. Lee had freed all of his own slaves before the war. Many 
of the best men in the South were far from being satisfied with 
the institution of slavery even while they owned slaves that had 
come to them by inheritance. They were enmeshed in a condi- 
tion from which they could not extricate themselves without 
the concerted action of the whole population. Even then it 
would have taxed the entire nation to deal with it. But, how- 
ever great the difficulties, our leaders ought to have seen that 
the sentiment of the civilized world was tending toward free- 
dom, that slavery stood in the way of the rising spirit of in- 
dustrialism, that the drift of modern governments toward na- 
tionalism would defeat our efforts to establish the extreme 
doctrine of States' rights and intense individualism, and that 
we could not stem the tide of these world movements. 

While all this seems clear now, it was not so evident in 1861. 
Many believed, as Mr. Yancey expressed it, that cotton was 
king, that we had a monopoly in this indispensable material, 
and that the world would be compelled to acknowledge its su- 
premacy; and, as Mr. A. H. Stephens expressed the case, that 
slavery was the normal condition of human society, that this 
condition was best for both master and slave, and that it was 
indorsed by the precepts and practices recorded in the Bible. 

The extreme and violent teaching of the abolitionists, cul- 
minating in the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859, 
his execution under the laws of Virginia, and his canonization 
by the extremists of the North — all these things portended "an 
irrepressible conflict," as Mr. Seward expressed it, a conflict 
which had to be fought out to the bitter end. We shall see 
something of this conflict as our narrative proceeds. 

Getting back to the corps, our stay in Montgomery embraced 
about five days, including one Sunday, on which we marched 
in a body to the Baptist church to hear Dr. Manly, who had 



I50 REMINISCENCES. 

recently moved from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. However 
much we might have been pleased to linger longer in Mont- 
gomery amid these exciting scenes, we had to get back to work 
at the University. 

Our return trip to Mobile was made on the fine steamer St. 
Charles, that plied between Montgomery and Mobile. We 
stopped in Selma and drilled on the streets for an hour. This 
voyage was pleasant but uneventful beyond the interest mani- 
fested in public affairs by the passengers. Among these were 
Judge A. A. Coleman and his little son, who was taking home 
with him a small kettledrum as a symbol of the martial spirit 
which was rapidly spreading throughout the country. Our trip 
was planned to catch the Warrior boat which had brought us 
down. 

In our voyage of three days from Mobile to Tuscaloosa we 
passed up the Tombigbee by St. Stephen's Bluff; by Bladon 
Springs Landing and the border of my native Choctaw Coun- 
ty; through Demopolis, the "City of the People," founded by 
the survivors of the defeated and dethroned Napoleon ; then up 
the narrow and crooked Warrior through one of the finest 
farming sections in the South. 

On arrival at the University we found that about two weeks 
had passed since we had looked into a book and that it required 
heroic effort to get back to study, for the routine duties of 
college life were tame compared with the exciting scenes we 
had just passed through. I was agreeably surprised, how- 
ever, to find how quickly we recovered our usual college tone 
when we had plenty of work to do. Work is the best antidote 
for ennui and discontent. We were so busy that we had no 
time to discuss what was going on outside of the University, 
at least for a while. We had no morning papers with flaming 
headlines to keep us excited. 

Dr. Garland was very hopeful that there would be no war. 
So firm was he in his belief in the doctrine almost universally 
conceded, in the North as well as In the South, that a State had 
the right to secede, that he thought the North would, as Hor- 
ace Greeley advised, **let the erring sisters go in peace." 



'REMINISCENCES. 151 

Firing on Fort Sumter. 

If our leaders could have foreseen the denouement of af- 
fairs, it would have been better not to fire on Fort Sumter, even 
if the Federals had dared to shell Charleston. As was believed 
by the Southern commissioners, with whom the authorities of 
the United States had dallied for five weeks, and is still gen- 
erally believed, Mr. Lincoln shrewdly maneuvered to induce 
the Confederates to fire on Fort Sumter. Dr. Charles Edward 
Stowe, the son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Un- 
cle Tom's Cabin," made this statement in the Methodist Re- 
view of October, 191 1 : 

This attack on the national flag was in great part the result of the 
diplomacy of the astute Lincoln, whom we credit with the deliberate in- 
tention of compelling the South to strike the first blow and so appear 
before the world as responsible for the commencement of hostilities. It 
was a shrewd move and gave the North unspeakable advantage from the 
first. 

This aroused and united the North. When Mr. Lincoln 
called for seventy-five thousand troops, and when a regiment 
of Federal troops was attacked in Baltimore on April 19, Dr. 
Garland came galloping home from town on his little black 
mare bringing the latest news, his naturally thin and pale face 
more flushed than I had ever seen it. The awful situation was 
beginning to dawn upon him. He said : "I fear that we shall 
have war. Blood has been shed on the streets of Baltimore." 

Upon the call of Mr. Lincoln for troops to suppress the 
rebellion, four more States — Arkansas, North Carolina, Vir- 
ginia, and Tennessee — withdrew from the Union and joined 
the Confederacy; and the whole country was fast becoming a 
military camp, soldiers being drilled and armed as rapidly as 
possible. It was becoming hard to hold the cadets down to the 
quietude of study. Some of the older ones were being solicited 
to join the newly formed commands as drillmasters and sub- 
ordinate officers. Through the strong personal influence of 
Dr. Garland most of us were held to our posts till the close of 
the session, in July, 1861. 

I was gratified at the result of my year's work when the 



152 REMINISCENCES. 

President announced from the rostrum on commencement day r 
"Cadet Massey is first on the roll of honor for scholarship and 
stands alone, with no demerits against him." It had been a 
year's work beset with interruptions and temptations to turn 
aside from the most important thing for me at that time and 
for the rest of my life — namely, my education. I was begin- 
ning to see in some degree the vital importance of giving all my 
energies to whatever I had to do, so as not to be diverted by 
any side issues. This purpose has enabled me with limited 
talents to do a little something which I hope may count on the 
side of right. 

During the vacation of 1861 I was placed in charge of the 
University buildings and quartermaster's stores. I spent part 
of the time in drilling troops that were getting ready for active 
service. During this summer I had the pleasure and advantage 
of associating during my leisure hours with the families of the 
professors of the University and other cultivated and refined 
people of the town. 

After the battle of Bull Run, on July 21, 1861, which re- 
sulted in a victory for the Confederates and a stampede of the 
Federals, many began to think that the war would be of short 
duration. But when Mr. Lincoln called for three hundred 
thousand additional troops and they came at his bidding, like 
the soldiers that sprang from the dragon's teeth sown by Cad- 
mus, it became evident to every thoughtful mind that we were 
to have war in earnest — deadly, destructive war, heart-rending, 
blood-shedding war, which "means hell," according to the 
definition attributed to Greneral Sherman. 

The Invasion of Virginia. 

The firing on the flag at Fort Sumter had stirred the North 
to a frenzy of passion. The invasion of Virginia had stirred 
the South even more. The indignation caused by the firing on 
the flag grew out of a patriotic sentiment, while the invasion 
of the territory of the South for the purpose of subjugation 
was a deadly thrust that united us almost to a man to resist it 
to the last extremity. This was what inspired the Confederates 



REMINISCENCES. 153 

to become what the late Bishop David H. Moore, a lieutenant 
colonel in the Federal army in 1862, recently wrote of them : 
"Of a truth, they were the greatest soldiers that mortals ever 
fought." No real man, especially no Anglo-Saxon, will tamely 
submit to the invasion of his home. The men who had been 
strenuously opposed to secession were now as enthusiastic in 
repelling invasion as the most rabid secessionists. Both sides, 
North and South, lost sight of the original issue in the contro- 
versy. "Honor the flag" and "Save the Union" became the 
slogans of the North. The sentiment of Marco Bozzaris, 

"Strike — till the last armed foe expires ; 
Strike — for your altars and your fires; 
Strike — for the green graves of your sires; 
God — and your native land," 

fired the heart of the South. These powerful passions fused 
and remolded men's convictions and practically made the North 
a unit for the "flag" and "the Union" and the South a unit in 
defense of home and native land. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the South was fighting to per- 
petuate slavery; for the majority of the Confederate soldiers 
never owned slaves, and some who did own them were not 
satisfied with the institution. It is likewise a mistake to con- 
clude that the main body of the Federal army were fighting to 
free the slaves. While the subject of slavery was originally the 
main bone of contention, the two strong opposing currents of 
feeling had drifted away from this issue. We had passed the 
first stage of the controversy. In the minds of the Confeder- 
ates the duty of self-defense was paramount and eclipsed every 
other thought. In the minds of the Federals the duty of de- 
fending the flag seemed to be the dominant consideration. 

Now that the smoke of battle has cleared away and the trans- 
parent atmosphere permits us to see things in their proper per- 
spective, we can see that self-defense is an indispensable char- 
acteristic of genuine manhood and that patriotism is a noble 
quality worthy of great honor; that the heroic courage which 
can face death rather than surrender what is honestly believed 
to be right is worthy of the highest honor, on whichever side 



154 REMINISCENCES. 

displayed. "Manhood is the one immortal thing beneath time's 
changeful sky." 

The college year of 1861-62 opened in the latter part of 
September with about two hundred and fifty students. My 
room for the first half of this year was the south end room on 
the third floor of Washington Barracks with Luke White Dug- 
gar and John Franklin Griffin, who escaped the carnage of 
war, served their generation as good citizens, and were gath- 
ered to their fathers some years ago. Duggar was a quiet 
farmer in Perry County. His name has been mentioned on a 
former page in connection with our Religious Club. Griffin 
was a merchant and cotton broker in Demopolis and served 
one or two terms in the Legislature. 

This was my senior year. I found, from the severe disci- 
pline and study of the two preceding years, that I had less diffi- 
culty in my studies than ever before. The main part of my 
work was with Dr. Garland, Professor Benagh, and Professor 
DeLoffre. The first part of the year I continued to serve as 
secretary in the President's office. I also did some good read- 
ing in spite, of the war spirit, which at times ran very high. 
At one time this war feeling threatened to break up the col- 
lege, as it had done most of the colleges throughout the coun- 
try; but Di'. Garland's strong personal influence and his mas- 
terly arguments held most of us in our places till the close of 
the year. If the war should close soon, he said, we would not 
be needed in the field, and our education could go on without 
interruption; but if the war should be prolonged, we could do 
more good where we w^ere in preparing ourselves as drillmas- 
ters and thoroughly trained officers than we could by prema- 
turely sacrificing ourselves In the field. And in case there 
should be a long-continued war, we would have plenty of time 
to show our patriotism when we would be better prepared to 
render efficient service to our country. He told us that he had 
a message from the President of the Confederacy urging him 
to hold the University intact, as It was one of the most impor- 
tant feeders of the army In keeping up a supply of trained 
officers, and that It would be poor economy to "grind up our 



REMINISCENCES. 155 

seed corn for immediate use." No argument, however, could 
prevent some from leaving the college and going into the field 
during the year ; but most of us, seeing the reasonableness of 
the Doctor's plan and feeling the force of his personal influ- 
ence, decided to remain till the close of the year. 

Sent to Montgomery to Drill Troops. 

Early in December, 1861, Cadets Eugene A. Smith, C. H. 
Ellerbe, and myself were detailed to assist in drilling a regi- 
ment of troops which was being formed in Montgomery. We 
carried from Dr. Garland a letter of introduction to Governor 
A. B. Moore, which we presented on arrival in the city. He 
received us very courteously and insisted on our taking seats, 
which we declined to do, but stood at "attention" while he gave 
us our orders. On receiving orders we proceeded immediate- 
ly to the camp of instruction. I was told afterwards that the 
Governor was highly pleased with our appearance and our de- 
portment. He said : "I like the manner of those fellows, but 
I could not get one of them to take a seat. As soon as I could 
give them their orders they went straight to the camp." 

The camp was located near the river about where the electric 
light plant is now located. In this place we were occupied 
about two weeks in drilling the troops. 

First Visit to Prattville. 

While we were in this camp I made my first trip to Pratt- 
ville, on the invitation of my friend Smith. There was no rail- 
road to Prattville then. Travel had to be performed by boat 
or private conveyance. We went on a boat to Washington 
Landing and out to the village by private conveyance. 

I was hospitably entertained at the home of Dr. S. P. Smith. 
The generous hospitality of the Doctor and his excellent family 
I have always esteemed among the many good fortunes that 
have come into my life. He was my devoted friend to the day 
of his death. There was nothing little about the man. Of fine 
native endowments, well cultivated, magnanimously interested 
in all public questions, but never asking political preferment; 



156 REMINISCENCES. 

an excellent physician who practiced, not for gain, but for the 
good of his fellow men ; a stanch supporter of the Church, from 
the choir to the collections, yet his devout spirit was not con- 
fined to any mere form — such a man is not often found twice 
in a generation in the same community. Happy is the com- 
munity that can produce one; yet Prattville was blessed with 
two, S. P. Smith and Daniel Pratt. 

Here I met for the first time Miss Julia A. Smith, daughter 
of Dr. Smith and sister of my classmate, Dr. E. A. Smith. 
Soon afterwards she was married to Mr. Merrill E. Pratt, the 
nephew and worthy successor in business of Hon. Daniel Pratt. 
The Julia A. Pratt Residence Hall of the Woman's College, in 
Montgomery, is honored with her name as a tribute to her 
liberality. In the years following my first visit to Prattville I 
have had the honor of educating all of Mrs. Pratt's daughters, 
who are perpetuating the fine qualities of Dr. S. P. Smith and 
Hon. Daniel Pratt. Prattville bears the worthy name of the 
latter and has been ennobled by the generous spirit of the for- 
mer. 

Mrs. Adelaide Julia (Allen) Smith. 

From the time of my first visit, in 1861, till her death, in 
1891, I was the recipient of so many acts of kindness from 
Mrs. Adelaide Julia (Allen) Smith that my recollection of her 
constitutes a bright place in my reminiscences. She was the 
only daughter of Richard and Julia (Phelps) Allen, who 
moved from Connecticut about 1839 and settled in Autauga 
County near Washington, four miles southeast of Prattville. 
Soon afterwards she was married to Dr. S. P. Smith and be- 
came the mother of Dr. Eugene Allen Smith and Mrs. Julia 
A. (Smith) Pratt, whose lives have been so intimately and 
pleasantly associated with mine. 

Mrs. Smith was a woman of a very high order of native 
talent and withal of genuine simplicity and unaffected man- 
ners. It was easy to feel at home in her house. I saw her in 
the social circle when everything was bright and happy. I 
saw her when the "Yankees" entered her house, an event that 
generally created great consternation. I was near her when 



REMINISCENCES. 157 

death entered her family and deprived her of a highly accom- 
plished daughter. She maintained such equanimity and dignity 
through all these different phases of experience that I wish to 
pay her the tribute of not only exercising a warm and generous 
hospitality, but of exhibiting great poise and strength of 
character. 

During our two weeks' stay in the encampment at Mont- 
gomery I had the pleasure of seeing the inauguration of Gov- 
ernor John Gill Shorter, who was destined to have a stormy 
administration from December, 186 1, to December, 1863. He 
was a good man, but was not of a temperament to make a 
famous war governor. It is a misfortune to any man to be 
placed in a position which he is not adapted to fill with effi- 
ciency. The war tested the mettle of many a man, both in civil 
and military life. 

Appointed State Lieutenant. 

In February, 1862, I was promoted to a State lieutenancy, 
commissioned by the Governor, and placed in command of 
Company C of the Alabama Corps of Cadets. This made it 
necessary to move to the south end room on the first floor of 
Jefferson Barracks. My friends E. A. Smith, John H. Pet- 
way, and John H. Marshall occupied the room above mine. 
This advancement placed me in authority, in point of inspec- 
tion, over some with whom I had been in class during the for- 
mer years. Instead of annoying me, as they might have done, 
they were very courteous and helpful by their good example. 
I had very little trouble in the performance of my duties. I 
recall only one instance of an unpleasant nature. As I was 
going on the rounds of inspection one day at an unexpected 
hour I tapped on a door and went in. The tap was the signal 
to the inmates to rise and stand "at attention" during the in- 
spection of the room. As I entered the door I saw the bed- 
clothes quickly thrown back over the bed. I turned the cover 
down and discovered a deck of cards spread out on the mattress. 
I uttered no word of comment, but went on with the inspection, 
which required only a few minutes. After finishing my inspec- 



158 REMINISCENCES. 

tion, I was on my way to the commandant's office to make my 
report. One of the occupants of the room in which the cards 
were found, a tall young man, met me just outside of the 
building and said : "You are not going to report our room, are 
you ?" I replied : "Yes ; you know that it is a violation of the 
regulations to have cards in your room, and my duty requires 
me to report all violations when discovered." He said : "Well, 
you must not do it. If you do, you will have to answer for 
it." I responded: "I will report it to Colonel Murfee. You 
will have to settle the matter with him." I reported it, and 
the cadets were punished. The one who objected was expelled 
for this and other disorderly conduct. So ended the only trou- 
ble I had while in command of the company. 

Sent to North Alabama to Drill Troops. 

About the middle of April, 1862, I was detailed with three 
cadets to go to Huntsville to assist in drilling some new troops 
which were being collected in a camp of instruction under the 
direction of Ex-Governor Moore. We had proceeded on our 
way till we were within a few miles of Blountsville, when I 
was informed that the Federal General Ormsby Mitchell had 
occupied the portion of the State lying north of the Tennessee 
River and that his men were coming south toward Blounts- 
ville. I turned aside to a residence near the road to make some 
inquiries before I decided whether it would be best for me to 
go on or turn back to the University. I found a lady and some 
children in the house. I did not know whether we would find 
sympathy or not, as North Alabama was very much divided in 
regard to the war. I approached the subject cautiously till I 
found on which side the lady's sympathies lay. When I learned 
that her husband was in the Confederate army, I stated my 
mission; and she told me that she had heard that the "Yan- 
kees" were coming into Blountsville, if they were not already 
there. I asked her to lend me a suit of her husband's citi- 
zen clothes and a slouch hat. I left the three cadets and the 
hack; and, dressed in these clothes, I rode one of the horses 
into Blountsville looking, I suppose, somewhat like a farmer. 



REMINISCENCES. 159 

I found that the town was full of men and that they were 
Southern men. On inquiring for some of the officers I found 
that Governor Moore had dismissed the men from the camp of 
instruction in Huntsville to assemble in Gadsden. 

I went back to the place where I had left the cadets and 
early next morning started for Gadsden, about forty miles dis- 
tant, over a narrow, rough road across the lower end of Sand 
Mountain. We reached Gadsden early the following day and 
sent the hack back to Tuscaloosa. This was delayed several 
days on account of bad roads and high waters. Dr. Gar- 
land was very much relieved on the safe return of the hack, 
with a letter from me explaining the situation. He had heard 
of the approach of the Federals after we had left Tuscaloosa 
and was uneasy lest we might be captured. When he read my 
letter he said : 'T did not believe Massey would run into a trap." 

While we were waiting in Gadsden for the assembling of 
the men I had an opportunity of looking over the romantic 
country where Gadsden, then an insignificant little village, 
now quite a city, is located. I visited Black Creek Falls, where 
Emma Sansom, a girl in her teens. In the spring of 1863 distin- 
guished herself by mounting behind General Forrest and con- 
ducting him to a ford across the creek in his pursuit of General 
Streight, whom he soon afterwards captured. 

As soon as the troops assembled, Governor Moore had us 
all transported on a little steamboat up the Coosa River to 
Rome, Georgia, and thence by rail via Atlanta to Auburn, Ala- 
bama, where we drilled the troops on the campus in front of 
the college building, a place which has been the scene of many 
feats in military tactics during the last forty years. 

All of the officers and cadets who had been drilling troops 
in different parts of the State were ordered back to the Uni- 
versity about the middle of May. Before going on this expedi- 
tion I had finished my studies, except some reviews and exami- 
nations. These were completed in the next month. 

It was now incumbent on me to decide what I should do. 
Dr. Garland offered me a position in the University as Assistant 
Professor and Instructor of Military Tactics. This was a use- 



i6o REMINISCENCES. 

ful and honorable position that any young man might justly 
covet. I was reluctant to decline it, not only on account of its 
desirability, but also on account of my great respect for the 
Doctor, who urged me by every reasonable consideration to 
remain at the University ; but so much had I become fascinated 
with the glamour of military glory and so much had my blood 
been fired by the war spirit with which public sentiment was 
surcharged that I could not get my consent to remain in what 
seemed to be a bombproof position while duty was calling me 
to the front. This was the reasoning of an excited mind tinc- 
tured with some desire for adventure. 

I stated my feelings to the Doctor and added that I was 
young and in good health ; that I had no one dependent on me ; 
that if any of our citizens ought to go to the front to defend 
the country I thought such as I should render this service ; and 
that, in view of these considerations, I had decided to go into 
the army. I shall never forget the pleasant smile that played 
over his face and the gleam that sparkled in his eyes as he said, 
"If I were young, I would do the same thing," and added : 
"Write me when you wish to come back." I kept up some cor- 
respondence with him and his family. He inquired three dif- 
ferent times in the next two years if I would consent to return 
to the University. He said that President Davis wished to 
keep it well manned and had informed him that he would 
transfer from the army any officer he might name. In one 
of these letters was the prayer that my head might "be cov- 
ered in the day of battle." This touched my heart, for I knew 
that it was a sincere prayer. 

While I was debating the question as to whether I should 
remain at the University or go into the army, I wrote to my 
friend Colonel Yates and asked him if he was willing for me 
to go into the army while I was in debt to him. He replied 
promptly : "Go ahead. I am going myself." 

My Classmates. 

I did not remain for the commencement exercises. I did 
not see myself graduate. I never knew what my standing for 



REMINISCENCES. i6i 

this year was. Only five out of a class of forty-two that en- 
tered the sophomore class in 1859 were graduated at the com- 
mencement of 1862. Here is the alphabetical list of their 
names: John H. Chambers, Clarence H. Ellerbe, John Drish 
King, John Massey, and Eugene Allen Smith. Some of those 
who started in 1859 dropped out at the end of the year 1859- 
60. Some went into the army in 1861. Many more went 
early in 1862, before completing the courses of study required 
for graduation. Of these five who were graduated, Chambers 
was killed in the battle of Nashville, December 16, 1864; El- 
lerbe was killed in the battle at Bentonville, North Carolina, 
the last battle fought between Johnston and Sherman, March 
18, 1865. I have lost sight of King. Massey is the writer of 
these reminiscences. Smith served for a while in Bragg's 
army and was engaged in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, 
October 8, 1862. After several months' service, he was, by 
request of Dr. Garland, transferred from the army to the 
University and served as Assistant Professor and Instructor of 
Military Tactics till the institution was suspended, in April, 
1865. 

After the close of the war, he went to Germany and studied 
three years, taking his degree of Ph.D. at Heidelberg in 1868. 
On returning to the United States he was for several years 
Professor of Chemistry and Geology in the University of Mis- 
sissippi. He has been for more than thirty years Professor of 
Chemistry and Geology in the University of Alabama and 
State Geologist. For more than fifty years there has been a 
cordial friendship between us, originating in the close ties of 
the classroom, strengthened by the comradeship of the war, 
and kept vivid by kindred occupations and by congenial asso- 
ciation with his father's family. 

Dr. Smith is one of the brightest men with whom I have 
ever been associated. It used to be a marvel to me how quickly 
he could get the hardest lessons. Lessons that I had to toil 
over for hours seemed to come to him without effort. Along 
with this brilliancy he possessed a wonderful capacity for work, 
a combination that brings forth praiseworthy results when ex- 
II 



i62 REMINISCENCES. 

ercised in noble pursuits. These qualities have made him a 
scientist of national reputation. He is now (1913) President 
of the Geological Society of America. His geological reports 
are noted for their thoroughness, accuracy, and lucidity. There 
is hardly an acre of land in the State that he has not gone over 
in his geological surveys. He has not only collected geological 
specimens from every quarter, but he has collected a large and 
well-selected library with whose contents he is familiar. To 
these accomplishments, scientific and literary, I should add his 
aesthetic culture. He is a man of fine musical taste and is a 
good performer on the violin. But the quality that endears 
him most to those who know him best is his capacity to form 
deep and lasting friendships and to cherish warm and tender 
sympathy for all living beings, even those in the animal king- 
dom. He cannot bear to witness suffering in any sentient 
thing. The sentiment of the poet, 

"Take not in sport that life you cannot give, 
For all things have an equal right to live," 

has an abiding place in Dr. Smith's heart. 

"He prayeth well who loveth well 

Both man and bird and beast; 
He prayeth best who loveth best 

All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God, who loveth us, 

Hath made and loveth all," 

Most of the Alabama Corps of Cadets were too young to 
achieve distinction above the lower ranks of officers, yet many 
became distinguished in spite of their youth. If the war had 
continued a few years longer, I have no doubt that many more 
would have risen to high rank. 

John C. C. Sanders, who was a junior in my sophomore 
year, went out with the Eleventh Alabama, rose to the colonel- 
cy of his regiment, was distinguished for gallantry at Spotsyl- 
vania, and was commissioned brigadier general May 31, 1864. 
In one of the later engagements he was killed. 

Lucius Pinckard, one of my classmates, entered the Univer- 
sity from Tuskegee. He was not noted so much for good 



REMINISCENCES. 163 

scholarship as he was for manhness and mihtary talent. He 
entered the army among the first of the cadets, was distin- 
guished for gallantry, and was promoted to the colonelcy of 
his regiment. After the war he resided many years in his old 
home in Tuskegee. Like General Grant and some others, he 
was more successful in the arts of war than he was in the busi- 
ness of civil life. I have a pleasant recollection of three of his 
daughters who were pupils of mine for a number of years. He 
died in Atlanta some years ago, whither he had moved about 
the year 1898. 

I believe that no institution furnished more men for the 
army in proportion to the number of students than the Univer- 
sity of Alabama, and no institution in the whole country paid 
so heavy a toll for its patriotism. 

Copy of Inscription on Bowlder, University of 

Alabama. 

1861-1865. 

The University of Alabama gave to the Confederacy 7 
general officers, 2$ colonels, i4 lieutenant colonels, 21 ma- 
jors, 125 captains, 66 noncommissioned officers, and 294 pri- 
VATE SOLDIERS. Recognizing obedience to the State, they loy- 
ally AND uncomplainingly MET THE CALL OF DUTY, IN NUMBER- 
LESS INSTANCES SEALING THEIR DEVOTION BY THEIR LIFEBLOOD. AnD 

ON April 3, 1865, the Cadet Corps, composed wholly of boys, 

WENT BRAVELY FORTH TO REPEL A VETERAN FEDERAL INVADING 
FOE OF MANY TIMES THEIR NUMBER IN A VAIN EFFORT TO SAVE 

. THEIR Alma Mater, its buildings, library, and laboratories, 

FROM destruction BY FIRE, WHICH IT MET AT THE HANDS OF 
THE ENEMY ON THE DAY FOLLOWING. 

To COMMEMORATE THIS HEROIC RECORD THIS MEMORIAL STONE 
IS ERECTED BY THE ALABAMA DIVISION, UnITED DAUGHTERS OF 

THE Confederacy. 

University of Alabama, 
May 13, 1914. 

Upon the invitation of the Daughters of the Confederacy, I 
had the honor of making one of the addresses on the dedication 
of this bowlder. 

After this digression, we will go back to some account of my 
life in the army. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Going into the Army — Colonel Henry W. Hilliard — Hilliard's Legion — 
Mrs. Mary L. Parker Thorington — Colonel J. Thorington — Legion Sent 
to Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Cumberland Gap — Experiences at Cum- 
berland Gap — Excursion into Kentucky — Retreat from Kentucky — At 
Big Creek Gap during the Winter of 1862-63 — Grade's Brigade Formed. 

TTILLIARD'S LEGION (afterwards called Alabama Le- 
■■■ ■*■ gion) was organized in Montgomery during the latter 
part of June, 1862. It was composed, in the main, of mature 
and substantial citizens of Central and Eastern Alabama. The 
commands that had gone into the field in the early stages of 
the war were largely drawn from the younger and more excit- 
able classes. The men of the Legion were generally men of 
families, clean moral men, many of them sincerely religious. 
They were going into the war, not for the glory of it, but from 
a sense of patriotic duty, which they performed faithfully, as 
the record they made plainly shows. Henry W. Hilliard, com- 
mander of the Legion, was a native of South Carolina, a grad- 
uate of South Carolina College, had been Professor of English 
Literature in the University of Alabama from its organization 
in 1 83 1 to 1834, was a local Methodist preacher, a lawyer by 
profession. Minister to Belgium from 1842 to 1844, Congress- 
man from 1845 to 185 1, was a facile writer, and was the peer 
of W. L. Yancey on the stump. A man of such variety of 
talents and so extensive acquaintance with the people could 
easily raise a legion of soldiers. He was originally opposed to 
secession, but was now as ready to repel invasion as was Mr. 
Yancey; and he did take a more active part in the field than 
Mr. Yancey, who was sent as commissioner to England early 
in the war. Mr. Hilliard was very naturally placed in com- 
mand of the Legion, which for the first year was called Hil- 
liard's Legion. But military genius was not one of the bril- 
liant parts in the make-up of this many-sided man. He ap- 
peared to much better advantage in the court room, on the 
(164) 



REMINISCENCES. 165 

hustings, in the halls of Congress, and in the courts of kings 
than he did in the role of a soldier on the tented field. 

The Legion, as originally planned, consisted of four infantry 
battalions, one cavalry battalion, and a battery of artillery. 
The cavalry and artillery were soon detached from the Legion 
and will not be further noticed in these reminiscences. 

The infantry of the Legion was organized as follows : Colo- 
nel Henry W. Hilliard, Commander; Captain Preston Hil- 
liard, Adjutant General; Captain W. H. Fowler, Quartermas- 
ter; Captain Somerville, Commissary; Dr. Camillus Hilliard, 
Surgeon; Dr. H. P. Spangler, Chaplain. 

First Battalion. — Lieutenant Colonel Jack Thorington, 
Commander; Major John H. Holt, Major; Lieutenant John 
Massey, Adjutant; Dr. Conrad Wall, Surgeon. 

Second Battalion. — Lieutenant Colonel Boiling Hall, Com- 
mander; Major W. Stubblefield, Major; Lieutenant C. Hall, 
Adjutant ; Dr. J. B. Luckie, Surgeon. 

Third Battalion. — Lieutenant Colonel John W. A. San ford. 
Commander ; Major Hatch Cook, Major. 

Fourth Battalion. — Major W. N. Reeves, Commander. 

The other officers I do not remember. 

The First Battalion was composed of seven companies, as 
follows: Company A, Captain Daniel S. Troy, Commander; 
Company B, Captain Ridgeway, Commander; Company C, 
Captain George W. Huguley, Commander ; Company D, Cap- 
tain R. N. Moore, Commander; Company E, Captain J. W. 
L. Daniel, Commander; Company F, Captain N. Stallworth, 
Commander; Company G, Captain W. A. Middleton, Com- 
mander. 

About the time the Legion was organized Colonel Thoring- 
ton wrote to Dr. Garland requesting him to recommend a 
young man for the adjutancy of the First Battalion. The Doc- 
tor recommended me in very complimentary terms, as I was 
informed by parties who saw the letter. The necessity for my 
joining the Legion at once was the cause of my absence from 
the commencement at which I was graduated. 



i66 REMINISCENCES. 

Mrs. Mary Lord (Parker) Thorington. 
I reached Montgomery about the 25th of June and was 
most kindly entertained in the home of Colonel Thorington as 
long as the Legion remained in the city. Mrs. Thorington {nee 
Mary Lord Parker) was a gracious and charming lady, born 
in Troy, New York, in 18 17, but was in full sympathy with 
the South. She showed me every possible courtesy while I 
remained in her home. It gave me pleasure to be able to make 
some return for this kindness in the education of two of her 
granddaughters, Misses Mary Ella and Nonie Thorington, 
many years after the war. These are daughters of the late 
Judge W. S. Thorington, who read and passed favorable com- 
ment on these notes. 

Colonel Jack Thorington. 

Owing to my military training in the Alabama Corps of 
Cadets and much practice in various camps of instruction, it 
fell to my lot to drill the battalion, which was camped in some 
open fields outside of the city in the locality which Cloverdale 
now covers with its fine residences. I spent the days in camp 
and the nights at Colonel Thorington's. As I wish to express 
my appreciation of the many kindnesses received at his hands, 
I shall anticipate in the chronological order of my story to 
give my estimate of him. 

He was born in the north of Ireland in 18 10 and was a man 
of fine intelligence and commanding personal dignity. He 
possessed a vein of humor characteristic of his nationality. He 
was a man of undaunted courage. If duty called for the sac- 
rifice, he would do what so many "sons of Erin" have done in 
every land to which they have gone : he would give his life for 
the honor of his adopted country. He remained with the Le- 
gion nearly a year after Colonel Hilliard retired. Indeed, he 
remained till failing health rendered it impossible for him to be 
of service in the field. On retiring he bade the Legion an af- 
fectionate farewell, manifesting a deep interest in the men he 
had led to the front. I am persuaded that the collapse of the 
cause thev loved so well hastened the death of Colonel Thor- 



REMINISCENCES. 167 

ington and many other patriotic men of the South. Among 
the good Irish friends I have had during my Hfe, I gratefully 
place Colonel Jack Thorington. 

The military drill went assiduously on while we remained in 
Montgomery. Orders came for us to move to the front on the 
8th of July. Besides the organization of the Legion into bat- 
talions and companies, the officers and men must now arrange 
themselves into "messes" for their sleeping and cooking. I 
was solicited by Dr. Conrad Wall, the surgeon, and Mr. W. 
H. Micou, the ordnance sergeant, to mess with them. So they 
became my regular messmates as long as I remained with the 
Legion. Mr. Micou had brought with him a colored boy by the 
name of Lem, who was a good forager, a fine cook, and, as 
the sequel will show, a faithful servant. We w^ere all young 
men and were very congenial. They were gentlemen of the 
old Southern stamp, than which there has never been a higher 
type in any civilization. They were my friends to the end of 
their lives. In the years long after the war I had the pleasure 
and the honor of educating five of Dr. Wall's daughters and 
one of Mr. Micou' s — all they had. 

Legion Sent to Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Cumber- 
land Gap. 

When we left Montgomery on the 8th of July, we did not 
know where we w^ere going. We rather thought we were go- 
ing to Virginia, as that was then the most active field of oper- 
ations. We stopped in Atlanta a short time awaiting orders 
and spent the time in drilling. When our orders came, it was 
not to Virginia, but to Chattanooga, that we had to go. We 
remained about three weeks, while we were being armed and 
more thoroughly drilled. Here I had the opportunity of view- 
ing for the first time this most picturesque country, from whose 
mountain observatory three States — Tennessee, Alabama, and 
Georgia — can be distinctly seen ; some say four others — North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky — but I never 
could be sure of the last four. On a clear day the prospect 
from Lookout Point is magnificent, inspiring the emotion of 



i68 REMINISCENCES. 

sublimity with its billowy mountain ranges one after another 
like vast waves of the sea caught up and held in a state of fix- 
ity by some invisible, omnipotent Power ; while the crystal river, 
glistening in its silvery sheen, winds its huge serpentine folds 
through these vast piles of granite. 

While in Chattanooga I had a narrow escape from the fall 
of a horse. Colonel Thorington owned a fine young horse that 
had been trained for the race track. The Colonel ordered me 
to ride his horse to General McCown's headquarters to deliver 
a message. On my way I had to pass the railroad engine 
house. While the horse was not vicious, he was mortally 
afraid of a locomotive. An engine was just emerging from 
the house a few yards ahead of me. Knowing the horse's 
dread of an engine, I snatched up the reins quickly as he turned 
to run. The hooked bit caught in the martingale ring and held 
his chin fastened to his breast. He continued to rear up till 
he began to fall straight backward. I kicked the stirrups from 
my feet and threw myself to one side to keep him from falling 
on me. He fell on his back, and I fell close by his side. We 
both rose at the same time. I caught the bridle and remounted. 
The fall seemed to steady his nerves, as I had no further trou- 
ble with him. 

Experiences at Cumberland Gap. 

Early in August the Legion was moved from Chattanooga to 
Knoxville and in a short time was moved again from Knoxville 
to Tazewell, Tennessee, a distance of forty-one miles. This 
was the first long march we had made up to this time. At the 
end of this two days' march over a rocky road, with blistered 
feet and weary limbs, we welcomed a few days' rest. After 
ten days at Tazewell, we joined General C. L. Stevenson, who 
was investing Cumberland Gap, held by the Federal General 
George W. Morgan. The Confederate line was about five 
miles from the Gap. During this Investment the enemy fre- 
quently shelled us from their batteries on the mountain peaks. 
These shells sometimes exploded over our heads, but often 
went beyond our lines. This was our first opportunity to be- 



REMINISCENCES. 169 

come acquainted with the pecuharly vicious sound of shells 
passing through the air. There was something romantic and 
inspiring in the reverberations of these bellowing sounds 
through the mountain fastnesses, coupled with the grandeur of 
the scenery, spiced with just enough danger to take life out of 
the commonplace. 

During one of the days of this siege I experienced my first 
and last arrest. Interested in the splendid views and the nov- 
elty of the situation, I unwittingly wandered beyond our lines, 
when I was halted by a picket from a hilltop about two hun- 
dred yards distant. With his gun ready for use, he ordered 
me to come to him. There was nothing left me but to obey. 
On approaching him he told me that I was over the picket line 
and that he had orders to arrest or shoot everybody who went 
over the line. I told him that I did not know I was over the 
line and that I was an officer in Hilliard's Legion and was 
walking out for recreation. He said that he would have to 
take me to headquarters, whoever I might be. Somewhat em- 
barrassed, but knowing that I was neither a deserter nor moved 
by any evil intent, I told him that I would go with him. He 
marched me to his headquarters and told the officer in charge 
that here was a man he had arrested over the lines. The offi- 
cer said that he would have to see the colonel about it. The 
colonel questioned me closely as to who I was and what I was 
doing over the picket line. I told him that I was an officer in 
Hilliard's Legion, which had recently come, and I did not 
know that I was over the line. He said that he would have to 
put me under guard till he found out the state of the case. I 
happened to have in my pocket a small memorandum book and 
a letter which might identify me. I showed him these and 
asked him to send a guard with me to my own headquarters. 
His stern features finally relaxed into a smile at my dilemma 
as I went off with the guard to my headquarters. When I 
stated the case to Major Holt, he broke out into a hearty laugh 
because his adjutant had to be brought into camp under arrest. 
The boys thought it very funny. They enjoyed it more than 
I did. 



I70 REMINISCENCES. 

The Federals evacuated the Gap on the 17th of September, 
and we occupied it on the next day. The First BattaHon 
reached the basin at the foot of the Gap late in the afternoon. 
As the evening shades were settling down on the mountains 
we were ordered to ascend the left-hand, or southern, peak by 
a winding road which began at the highest point in the Gap 
between the two peaks. I think it must have been ten o'clock 
when we reached the level on the summit of the mountain. 
Here we found a few cabins which had been occupied by 
the Federals. A cold, cutting wind was coming from the north 
with all the iciness of winter. We warmed ourselves as well as 
we could by some fires which we kindled out of such light tim- 
bers as we could find. The wind hardly permitted these to re- 
main together long enough to burn. After our cold rations 
were dispatched, we lay down to a night's repose under the 
sharp blasts of old Boreas. I do not think my slumbers were 
at all disturbed. I could sleep soundly even on the ground 
with little or no cover. So much for good health and being 
inured to hard conditions. When we awoke in the morning, 
a dense fog covered everything, so that we could not see a man 
fifty steps away. As the sun rose, the fog began to clear away 
from the top of the mountain, leaving a solid-looking bank on 
a level with the peak on which we stood. As the sun ad- 
vanced, great chasms began to appear In the banks of fog. In 
the course of an hour the rough and craggy mountain side and 
the yawning valleys became visible several thousand feet below. 
I have never witnessed a grander sight. It was enough to make 
us feel dizzy. It is perfectly vivid to my mind, though seen 
through the stretch of more than a half century. On the next 
day we moved down and pitched our tents on the side of the 
mountain near the highest part of the Gap. 

During the few days that we spent there I had the arduously 
gained pleasure of climbing to the summit of the northern peak. 
I stood on a crag and looked down into the basin upon the men, 
who resembled ants passing along the road. I could see in 
the distance the Blue Ridge, in North Carolina, with num- 
berless undulations of the Appalachians lying between the 



REMINISCENCES. 171 

Blue Ridge and the Cumberland Range. Turning to the west, 
the view stretched away to the Cumberland River, winding its 
way along Pine Mountain, in Kentucky. The person whose 
life has always been on the plains has missed much of the ex- 
hilaration of which life is susceptible. 

On another day during this sojourn at the Gap I went into 
a large cavern down on the side of the mountain. This cavern 
is capacious enough to contain several large houses and so deep 
that stones thrown into some portions of it returned a dismal 
rumble, indicating considerable depth. The part of the cavern 
made visible by our candles is studded with stalactites and sta- 
lagmites, formed by the dripping of water highly charged with 
carbonate of lime, formations more interesting to the geologist 
than to the soldier. From this cavern gushes a stream that was 
turning a mill, a prominent feature of the Gap fifty years ago. 

On another afternoon I was sauntering leisurely along the 
side of the mountain above the basin when suddenly I saw a 
great volume of smoke and debris spouting up from the covered 
embrasure of a fortification which the Federals had left filled 
with shells and ammunition. This was followed by a thunder- 
ing noise, as if a whole battery of artillery were fired at once. 
In a second I saw the blazing and bleeding figure of a man 
scrambling out of the embrasure. I ran as fast as possible to 
the wounded man. Soon others came. His clothes were all 
aflame. We pulled him as quickly as we could to a spring 
branch near by to extinguish the flames. So badly parched 
was he that his skin peeled off as we handled him. As soon 
as we got the flames extinguished he said : "There are two 
more poor fellows back in there." These we found and pulled 
out. Surgeons were summoned, and the men were cared for; 
but they were so badly bruised and burned by the bursting 
shells that they died that night. They had been detailed to 
guard the ammunition In the fortification. One of them 
dropped his bayonet on the rock on which some powder had 
been scattered. The steel bayonet struck fire on the rock and 
blew up the magazine. The Federals had kept at the Gap large 



172 REMINISCENCES. 

quantities of ammunition and guns to supply the Unionists 
with. They had removed some, but had missed this magazine. 
As soon as I could I went to a branch, stripped myself, and 
tried to wash out the odor of the parched skin of my unfortu- 
nate fellow soldier. I was solemnly impressed with the horrors 
of war, whose object is to destroy the lives of enemies; but it 
sometimes destroys the lives of friends as well. 

Excursion into Kentucky. 

During the last day of September and the first day of Octo- 
ber all the Army of East Tennessee, under General McCown, 
passed through the Gap to join General Bragg in his campaign 
through Kentucky. The Legion left the Gap on the 2d of Oc- 
tober and brought up the rear of the army. We crossed the 
Cumberland River a little above Pineville, going some miles 
down the right bank of the river to Barboursville and then 
northwest to London. This is a very romantic country of 
rough, rocky roads for an army to pass over. These mountain- 
eers were generally Union sympathizers in 1862. We hardly 
ever saw a man; but the women, as we passed them, would 
scowl at us and sometimes enter into railing accusations against 
us as vile rebels and wicked intruders on their peace and quie- 
tude. After we passed London, we struck a refined population, 
among whom we found more sympathy. The handsome faces 
of women wreathed in smiles and their salutations — waving 
shawls and handkerchiefs — were in striking contrast to the 
scowling countenances and taunting epithets of their moun- 
taineer sisters. Such a contrast do sympathy and hate make in 
their manifestations. 

As we proceeded toward Richmond, Kentucky, we had 
smooth, macadamized roads to pass over. When we had ad- 
vanced to some point southwest of Lexington, there were ru- 
mors of battle and distant cannonading. One night our wag- 
ons and horses were sent to the rear, and we were ordered to 
"fall into line" and get ready for battle. Mr. Micou had or- 
dered his servant Lem to go back with the wagons. Lem told 
his master that he wanted to go with him. Mr. Micou gave 



REMINISCENCES. 173 

him positive orders the second time. Lem still remained with 
the line. Mr. Micou became more positive and almost harsh 
in his command, with some threats if his order was not obeyed. 
Lem burst into tears and said: "Marse Billy, you know Ole 
Miss made me promise to stay with you and take care of you 
when we went into battle. Marse Billy, you may beat me, but 
I am not going to leave you while I am alive." I did not see 
more true and heroic devotion during the war than Lem's de- 
votion to his master. There was no battle of any consequence. 
The battle of Perryville had been fought on the 8th, and Gen- 
eral Bragg was maneuvering to make his retreat into East 
Tennessee. 

Retreat from Kentucky. 

Our Legion was thrown into the rear with General McCown's 
Division to bring up the rear of Bragg's retreat. For about 
ten days there was constant watchfulness, little sleep, occasional 
skirmishing, and great scarcity of rations — all this through 
clouds of dust and by the carcasses of dead horses scattered 
along the roads. On this retreat provisions were scarcer than 
at any time during my connection with the Legion. It was a 
dry fall, and pure water was sometimes hard to find. On one 
occasion just before we reached Cumberland River we crossed 
a muddy-looking stream. We all filled our canteens and took 
a full draught. The road ran close to the bank for some dis- 
tance. We had not gone far before we discovered some dead 
horses lying in the stream above the ford from which we had 
filled our canteens. These were days when we longed for the 
cool, clear springs of East Tennessee. The Legion, footsore 
and weary, hungry and dirty, passed through the Gap on the 
22d of October, just twenty days after we started into Ken- 
tucky. 

General Bragg and the Confederate authorities were greatly 
disappointed at the outcome of this campaign. General Bragg 
said in his report : 

The campaign was predicated on the belief and the most positive assur- 
ances that the people would rise in mass to assert their independence. No 
people ever had so favorable an opportunity, but I am distressed to add that 



174 REMINISCENCES. 

there is little or no disposition to avail of it. Willing, perhaps, to accept 
their independence, they are neither disposed nor willing to risk their lives 
or their property in its achievement. 

On the afternoon of our passage through the Gap we camped 
down in the valley at the foot of the southern peak, on whose 
summit we had camped on the i8th of September. During the 
campaign some one had appropriated my blankets, our tent 
had been misplaced, and we had nothing but a tent fly to stretch 
over us. Dr. Wall had his saddle blanket, and Mr. Micou had 
one thin blanket that he used as a shawl. I had an overcoat 
cape. This was our stock of bedding. We lay down and slept 
soundly. When we awoke the next morning, there was about 
eighteen inches of snow on the ground, and it had blown in on 
us till we were covered with it. But, strange as it may seem, 
we were perfectly warm. This snow remained on the ground 
for about two weeks. With wet feet and clothes, we suffered 
much from colds. This experience was a painful contrast to 
the exhilarating experience on the top of the mountain a month 
before. 

Early in November, while Bragg was reassembling his army 
to meet Rosecrans, who had collected an army in Tennessee, 
the Legion was moved to Loudon, Tennessee, and then to 
Bridgeport, Alabama. After a brief interval, it was carried 
back to Knoxville in the latter part of November. After re- 
maining there about three weeks, the command was located in 
different stations for the winter. Company A, of the First 
Battalion, was stationed on detached duty at Bristol. The 
other six companies, under command of Major Holt, were 
stationed at Big Creek Gap, about thirty miles south of Cum- 
berland Gap. The other three battalions were stationed at 
Cumberland Gap and other points. Thus we spent the winter 
of 1862-63. 

Sometime during this winter Colonel Hilliard resigned the 
command of the Legion. This made way for the promotion of 
Lieutenant Colonel Thorington to the rank of colonel, as com- 
mander of the Legion; of Major Holt to the rank of lieutenant 
colonel, as commander of the First Battalion; of Captain D. S. 



REMINISCENCES. 175 

Troy, the senior captain, to the rank of major; and of Lieuten- 
ant Clarke to the captaincy of Company A. 

On our marches up and down the various roads of East 
Tennessee we forded CHnch and Powell Rivers many times. 
There were no bridges over these streams. I generally had a 
horse to carry me over, either Colonel Holt's or my own. On 
one of these occasions (a cold day in December, I think it was) 
I had to wade Clinch River with the other boys. Before cross- 
ing, Colonel Thorington issued a humorous order, giving di- 
rections about stripping off all but our shoes, carrying our 
clothes in a bundle on our heads, after the manner of some 
character mentioned in "Georgia Scenes" who wore only a 
collar and spurs. Thus dressed we would be ready for the 
passage. The retention of our shoes was necessary on account 
of the sharp rocks in the bottom of the river, which was about 
waist-deep. On reaching the opposite bank we shivered in the 
chilly blast till we put on our clothes — all dry but our shoes. 
A march in quick time soon put our blood in fine circulation. 

At Big Creek Gap during the Winter of 1862-63. 

Our encampment at Big Creek Gap was monotonous and was 
not marked by any special warlike features. I became well 
acquainted with the officers and men of the six companies that 
guarded this Gap. We had some good singers. Captain R. N. 
Moore, of Company D, had been a singing teacher, had an 
excellent voice, and was fond of singing. He and others made 
the welkin ring many a night with their hymns and songs 
around the camp fires made of oak logs. Here, as had been 
the habit of the godly men of the command, prayer meetings 
were frequently held and were well attended. 

I saw one phenomenon during this encampment that I have 
never seen elsewhere, except in 1843, when the great comet 
appeared and I saw something like it. I saw, beginning more 
than an angle of forty-five degrees above the horizon, a burning 
mass seemingly about the size of a hogshead moving nearly 
straight down toward the earth. A considerable number of 
seconds after it had passed behind the mountain I heard a loud 



176 REMINISCENCES. 

explosion, like the sound of many cannons fired at once. The 
burning body left behind a dense streak of smoke that re- 
mained some minutes. I learned afterwards that some sol- 
diers who were stationed on picket duty about fifteen miles 
over the mountain saw it and heard it strike the ground with 
tremendous noise. This, I think, was a meteorite — that is, a 
mass of matter that was not burned into smoke and vapor be- 
fore reaching the earth, as meteors are. 

The adjutant is usually required to have a horse to expedite 
the carrying of orders; but as Major Holt had two horses and 
kindly placed one of them at my disposal, I had not up to the 
spring of 1863 had much use for a horse. I was a good pedes- 
trian and often preferred walking even when I could ride. 
Soon after we left Big Creek Gap I bought a fine little chest- 
nut sorrel horse full of life, which served me as long as I 
remained with the Legion. When I left the Legion, I sold him 
to Captain David Clarke, of Company A. The memory of that 
horse has always given me pleasure, as he was the means of 
relieving soldiers who were weary and footsore from long 
marches. I met a man in Montgomery fifty j^ears afterwards 
who was very appreciative of the rides I sometimes gave him. 
While the horse was nervous and full of spirit, he was kindly 
disposed. When I had lost sleep on long marches, I would put 
the bridle over my arm, lie down on the ground by his feet, and 
sleep while the command was halted for a rest. 

Gracie's Brigade Formed. 

Early in April the battalions were all assembled at Lea's 
Springs and placed in the brigade of Brigadier General A. 
Gracie. The brigade was composed of the four battalions of 
the Legion and the Firty-Third Alabama and Sixty-Third 
Tennessee Regiments. In this command they remained till 
they were surrendered at Appomattox, April 9, 1865. Here- 
after the mention of Gracie's Brigade will include the Legion. 
General Gracie was a New Yorker by birth, a graduate of West 
Point, but a resident of Mobile when the war broke out. He 
was a fine drillmaster, a brave officer, and made one of the best 



REMINISCENCES. 177 

brigade commanders in the army. He was killed at Petersburg 
in 1864. 

I had some correspondence with his son, Colonel Archibald 
Oracle, of the United States army, in reference to the battle of 
Chickamauga, about which he was writing a book. He never 
completed it. He was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer 
Titanic when she went down in April, 1912. He wrote a 
thrilling account of this disaster and of his miraculous escape, 
which was published in The Outlook. He never recovered from 
the nervous shock and died in New York in January, 191 3. 

During my adjutancy I read before the command on dress 
parade all the orders that were issued from the Adjutant Gen- 
eral's Office in Richmond, from the Department Headquarters, 
and from Division, Brigade, and Battalion Headquarters, em- 
bracing thousands of pages. My health was good, and my 
voice became so clear from constant practice that it was said 
that I could be distinctly understood all over the encampment. 

From the examination of my monthly reports, General John 
P. McCown paid me the compliment of being the best adjutant 
in the Department of East Tennessee. 
12 



A 



CHAPTER XV. 

Encampment at Cumberland Gap — The Battle of Chickamauga. 

FTER the organization of the brigade, General Gracie had 
frequent brigade drills over fields and fences, hills and 
hollows, just as if we were on the battle field. 

About the middle of April the brigade moved from Lea's 
Springs to Cumberland Gap, from Cumberland Gap to Bean's 
Station, from Bean's Station to Morrlstown, and from Morris- 
town back to Cumberland Gap about the first of June. From 
this time to the Qth of August the Legion remained in camp at 
the Gap doing picket duty, for the most part on the Kentucky 
side. The first battalion was camped on the western slope of 
the northern peak and a little north of the road leading into 
Kentucky. 

During this encampment of about two months I distinctly 
recall two incidents. I was tenting temporarily with Mr. 
George P. Keyes, my sergeant major, and Rev. Thomas Arm- 
strong, the chaplain of the battalion. Mr. Keyes and Mr. 
Armstrong were amiable men with whom I was so intimate 
that I did not hesitate to relieve the tedium of camp life by 
playing practical jokes upon them when an occasion was of- 
fered. On going out of the tent one night I found more fox 
fire (or phosphorescent wood) than I ever saw in one place. 
It had the appearance of live coals, extending the whole length 
of a large decayed log. I gathered up a piece several feet long 
and threw it into our tent, where Mr. Armstrong was alone. 
It broke into scores of pieces, flying all over the tent, and 
looked exactly like great chunks of fire. Mr. Armstrong was 
so startled that he cried out in dismay. Keyes and I rallied him 
for being too much afraid of fire to be a genuine Methodist 
preacher, who ought to be undecoyed by any devices of flattery 
and undismayed by any dangers of fire. Armstrong was a 
brave man of irreproachable character. He was wounded in 
the leg in one of the later battles and died during the war. 
(178) 



REMINISCENCES. 179 

The other incident was an excursion into Kentucky. A 
body of Federals were encamped at the ford of the Kentucky 
River about fifteen miles from the Gap. A Confederate force 
was sent to attack them. This force was made up of several 
battalions of infantry and two field pieces of artillery. The 
First Battalion of the Legion, commanded by Lieutenant Colo- 
nel Holt, constituted part of this expedition. The whole force 
was commanded by Colonel H — ^ — , of Georgia, who was the 
ranking officer of the expedition. He was dressed in a fine, 
new gray uniform which had not yet seen hard service. He 
was a very loquacious man, full of high-sounding phrases. I 
suspected that a dram now and then made him more commu- 
nicative than cautious. As his adjutant I remained with Colo- 
nel Holt during the conference among the field officers. When 
we were near the ford of the river, some women who claimed 
to be Confederate sympathizers informed us that there were 
lying in ambush in one of the narrow mountain gorges just 
ahead of us a body of the enemy; that there had come into the 
road behind us a strong force; and that we were completely 
cut off from the Gap and were to be attacked in front and rear. 
I think the report was a ruse to delay us while the Federals 
made their escape; but our commander believed that the re- 
port was true and stopped for several hours debating what to 
do. The day wore away without any developments. We aft- 
erwards learned from some Confederate scouts that these Fed- 
erals had left the river and gone back into Kentucky and that 
there was no enemy behind us. 

I distinctly remember how insecure I felt in the hands of a 
commander in whom I had no confidence. I felt what the old 
hunters used to call the "buck ague." We were not exchanging 
prisoners at that time. I dreaded capture and a Northern 

prison. I did not feel the confidence in Colonel H that a 

soldier in Nathan Bedford Forrest's command felt when he 
said : "General Forrest is a thousand men." Our men under 
a commander in whom they had confidence would have made 
a valiant fight, as they did on many a field afterwards; but 
under the commander of that expedition I do not know what 



i8o REMINISCENCES. 

they would have done. I know that a competent leader is the 
most important factor in an army. Alexander the Great is 
reported to have said : "An army of stags commanded by a lion 
is better than an army of lions commanded by a stag." 

Battle of Chickamauga. 

During the early part of August General Buckner, who had 
been in command of the Department of East Tennessee since 
Bragg's retreat out of Kentucky, commenced the evacuation of 
East Tennessee, in accordance with the plan to concentrate the 
Confederate forces near Chattanooga, in order to check Gen- 
eral Rosecrans, who was threatening that part of the country. 
On the 9th of August the Legion left Cumberland Gap and took 
up the line of march by way of Strawberry Plains, Knox- 
ville, and Turkey Creek to Loudon, where we remained till the 
1st of September. Then Buckner's Corps, of which Grade's 
Brigade formed a part, began a continuous movement that was 
to have no intermission till we were settled in the besieging line 
in front of Chattanooga after the battle of Chickamauga. 
Over a rocky road, enveloped in clouds of dust, we marched 
constantly by day and sometimes by night. I recall nothing 
of special interest on this march till we reached McLemore's 
Cove. 

This cove lies south of Chattanooga about twenty-five miles, 
between Lookout Mountain and Pigeon Mountain. It is from 
five to eight miles wide, about fifteen miles long, and contains 
about ninety square miles. Chickamauga Creek rises in the 
southern or upper end of it, runs in a northerly direction, and 
empties into the Tennessee River just above Chattanooga. The 
cove Is entered from the west through Stevens Gap and from 
the east through four gaps in Pigeon Mountain, Behind Pi- 
geon Mountain General Bragg had his army massed. 

The Federal army was at this time perilously separated un- 
der an erroneous report from General Sheridan that Bragg 
was retreating to Rome, Georgia, The right wing was about 
thirty miles south of Stevens Gap, under General McCook. 
The left wing, under General Crittenden, was about twenty-five 



REMINISCENCES. i8i 

miles north in two bodies some ten miles apart. General Thom- 
as, who at this time held the center, marched his corps through 
Stevens Gap into the cove and was proceeding to cross Pi- 
geon Mountain through Dug Gap. General Bragg was aware 
of all this and ordered General Hindman to make a vigorous 
attack on the head of Thomas's columns while in the cove. 
Hindman delayed till he could send to LaFayette and get 
Bragg's permission to change this order. Bragg sent him 
word to go ahead and execute the orders he already had. 
Bragg had also ordered General Hill to send Cleburne to sup- 
port Hindman, For some reason Hill did not send Cleburne. 
Thus a day was lost in making the attack on the enemy in the 
cove. In the meantime Buckner's Corps was ordered to come 
from the extreme right of Bragg's army. We had a forced 
march of a good many miles to reach the cove. After we got 
into the cove, we made some protracted double-quick move- 
ments, trying to bring the retreating enemy to bay, and had 
some skirmishing in this pursuit. Here I saw the first dead 
Federal, lying on his back between two corn rows with open 
glazed eyes as he had looked upward for the last time. This 
sight affected me more than the sight of hundreds of dead 
men did on the field of Chickamauga. Our chasing and killing 
a few poor fellows was of no avail. The delays of the preced- 
ing day had enabled Thomas to discover his danger and retreat 
behind the natural fortifications in front of Stevens Gap. 
Thus Bragg failed to crush the center of Rosecrans's army 
through the delay of his generals. He laid the blame upon 
Hindman and Hill. 

His next move was to fall upon the separated portions of 
the left wing of the Federal army under General Crittenden. 
He ordered General Polk to make an immediate and vigorous 
attack. But Polk, believing that a general attack was about to 
be made on his wing of the army, waited until he could sum- 
mon Buckner's Corps to his support. Thus we had another 
long forced march. But the delay of a whole day enabled 
Crittenden to unite his forces and take a strong position west 
of Chickamauga Creek. 



ii82 REMINISCENCES. 

Bragg's plans were well laid, and his orders were promptly 
given ; but for some reason he did not have the confidence of 
his subordinates. John Fiske, in his "History of the War in 
the Southwest," says in substance : "If Robert E, Lee or Stone- 
wall Jackson had been in command of Bragg's army, it is diffi- 
cult to see what could have saved the Federal army from de- 
struction." One necessary element in a military commander 
is the power to inspire the confidence and to secure the prompt 
and unquestioned obedience of his subordinates. Alexander, 
Caesar, Napoleon, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson could do this. 
Whether Bragg's failure was due to his own fault or that of 
his generals, I do not know. 

General Bragg's third plan was to move his army down the 
Chickamauga over the bridges and fords below the position of 
Crittenden's Corps, sweep up the valley, drive him back on the 
Federal center, and get between it and Chattanooga. When 
Rosecrans saw the situation, he states in his report, "it then 
became a matter of life and death to effect the concentration 
of the army." On the night of the i8th he succeeded in mov- 
ing Thomas's Corps to Crittenden's left and in placing the bulk 
of his army between Bragg and Chattanooga. This brought 
on the battle of Chickamauga during the 19th and 20th of 
September, 1863, which has been pronounced "one of the 
bloodiest in modern times." 

During the afternoon and night of the i8th most of the 
Confederate army crossed to the west of the Chickamauga. 
In the late afternoon Oracle's Brigade crossed on a bridge about 
a mile below Lee and Gordon's Mill. We lay on our arms that 
night four or five hundred yards from Barnes's Federal Bri- 
gade, which was stationed on a hill just across a branch of the 
creek. All was quiet along the Chickamauga till about eight 
o'clock the next morning, when some of the First Battalion 
while lighting their pipes started a fire in the dry leaves in our 
front. The smoke revealed our position and drew the shells 
from a battery of the enemy. They burst in our front and 
over our heads, doing some damage. Lieutenant Colonel Holt 
ordered me to detail some men to put out the fire. The men 



REMINISCENCES. 183 

started, but hesitated when the shells came thick and fast with 
startling explosions. I said to them: "Well, if you can't put 
the fire out, I will do it myself." They could not stand this 
reflection on their courage and promptly went with me and 
extinguished the fire. In good health and with steady nerves, 
I could hold myself still in the midst of these bursting shells 
without the twitch of a muscle. I mention this to show what 
a difference there is in being in fine condition and in being 
bruised in body by Minie balls and bereaved in mind from the 
loss of friends — a state in which I found myself on the 23d 
and 24th in front of Chattanooga. This difference will appear 
when I describe the circumstances then. 

The battle began in earnest about half past nine o'clock, 
when General Forrest came in conflict with General Thomas's 
left. This was the signal for the bloody drama to begin. 
Soon both armies were moving In the direction of this vortex 
of fierce fighting. Soon Walker's Corps became engaged with 
Croxton's and Starkweather's Divisions, and the battle in a 
short time extended all along our front. For hours the roar 
of musketry was one continuous sound, like a dozen railway 
trains crossing trestles, or the roar of an approaching hurricane, 
varied only by the thunder of cannon and the bursting of shells. 
There was something sublime in this awful scene that made our 
blood tingle in our veins. Every now and then we were moved 
forward at a double-quick, first to the right and then to the 
left, so as to keep within easy reach of the raging conflict. 

When we started in the morning, there were two lines ahead 
of us. Litters carrying the wounded passed through our line 
going to the rear. The horrors of battle thus became evident. 
During the afternoon the front line was relieved. As the sol- 
diers passed through our ranks with reduced numbers and 
powder-stained faces one of them said : "Boys, you will find a 
hot place out there." We were only spectators through the 
long hours of this memorable 19th of September. These were 
hours that tried men's souls, hours when they were seriously 
called upon to examine the foundation of their faith, hours 
when they became earnestly prayerful or insanely reckless. 



i84 REMINISCENCES. 

hours in which it would not do to let one's self go to pieces, if 
he had any respect for his good name or for the imperatives of 
duty. 

Just before dark the only remaining line was withdrawn 
from our front, passing over us to the rear and leaving us face 
to face with the enemy. 

Except in one part of the field where Cleburne made a fierce 
attack on the Federal divisions of Johnson and Baird for about 
an hour after dark, and the rumbling of heavy artillery moving 
over the rocky roads continuously to a late hour, there was 
comparative silence along the Chickamauga through the hours 
of that solemn night whose end was to lift the curtain on the 
scene of many a tragedy. 

The night was cold, and we had little but our clothing to 
shield us from its cutting air. I had only an overcoat cape. 
We had been forbidden to kindle any fires. We had nothing 
to eat except cold beef and tough biscuits made of flour and 
water three days before; but we had something else to think 
about besides the comfort of our bodies. The night was clear, 
and the stars seemed to look down on us with pity as we were, 
each one in his own way, trying to adjust his spirit to the or- 
deal set for the rising sun. Few and low were the words spo- 
ken. I can only recall some of my own reflections thus : "I am 
not responsible for bringing on this war. I am in it through 
what seems to be a call of duty. This call I must obey, leaving 
the issues in the hand of God, who is able to preserve my life, 
which I solemnly rededicate to Him. I know that He can, by 
means of a twig, divert a Minie ball from a vital part or, by 
a grain of sand in the casting of a shell, deflect a fragment 
from Its fatal course ; or He can, without any means, preserve 
a life placed in His hands." I had a comfortable conviction 
that He would cover my head in the hour of battle. With these 
reflections I braced my spirit for the trial which lay before me. 

We were ordered to be ready to move forward at daylight. 
Daylight came, and the sun rose on as beautiful a Sunday as 
he had ever shone on since the morning of creation. Just after 
sunrise General Gracie rode along our line and said : "Alabam- 



REMINISCENCES. 185 

ians, you will be led in battle to-day by General Longstreet. 
Show yourselves worthy of your native State." A hearty 
cheer rose in response. Longstreet had arrived on the bat- 
tle field at eleven o'clock the night before. We waited till 
about nine o'clock before the word "Forward!" was given. 
When the command was finally given, we moved rapidly, pass- 
ing over ground from which the enemy had retreated. About 
eleven o'clock Longstreet discovered a gap in the Federal lines, 
into which he plunged the divisions of B. R. Johnson, Law, 
and Kershaw, breaking the Federal line, "sending four of their 
brigades over the ridges to the west and north, separating the 
troops of Davis, Sheridan, and Wilder from the left wing of 
the Union army. Generals Rosecrans, McCook, and Critten- 
den, being in the rear of Sheridan's line when the break oc- 
curred, were swept off the field in a general rout. Apprehen- 
sive that the day was against him, Rosecrans proceeded directly 
to Chattanooga, leaving Garfield, his chief of staff, to return 
to Snodgrass Hill with orders for Thomas." This quotation, 
from an article published at the dedication of the Chickamauga 
National Park, is from Captain J. C. McElroy, of the Eight- 
eenth Ohio Regiment. As it is from the Federal side, I am sure 
that it is not overdrawn; besides, it confirms my recollection 
of the thrilling movements of that eventful forenoon. We felt 
sure that victory was perching upon our banners. During the 
afternoon we were advancing toward Snodgrass Hill, where 
the battle was now nearly all concentrated. We were drawing 
near to the most fatal spot on that whole sanguinary field of 
Chickamauga, Horseshoe, or Snodgrass Hill. On the brow 
of these hills, which bend around in an irregular semicircle 
opening toward McFarland's Gap, General Thomas had erect-' 
ed breastworks of logs from two to three feet high. Behind 
these he had collected in compact lines all the forces of the 
Union army that remained available. After the flight of 
Rosecrans, McCook, and Crittenden, he held this place with 
consummate skill and courageous tenacity from twelve o'clock 
to 6 P.M., while the remnant of the Federal army was being 



i86 REMINISCENCES. 

withdrawn through McFarland's Gap. On account of this feat 
he won the title of "Rock of Chickamauga." 

General Longstreet was the ruling spirit among the Confed- 
erates on September 20, 1863. If he could have dislodged 
Thomas sooner, much more of the Federal army would have 
been destroyed. During the afternoon he made six heavy 
assaults on this hill. General Kershaw says: "These were 
the heaviest assaults made on any one place during the war." 
Preston's Division (including Grade's, Kelley's, and Trigg's 
Brigades) made the last of these attacks late in the afternoon. 
In order to reach the breastworks where the Federals were 
posted we had to pass over the top of a ridge several hundred 
yards from their position, then go down a slope into a ravine, 
and up the steep side of Snodgrass Hill. The moment we ap- 
peared on this ridge we were greeted by a ferocious volley of 
musketry. We had advanced only a few steps when Lieuten- 
ant Colonel Holt was mortally wounded. I ordered him car- 
ried to the rear. A few minutes later I was struck by a glanc- 
ing ball on the inside of my left ankle, which I felt give way 
under my weight. As soon as I found that it was not broken I 
forgot all about it for the time. We had not advanced to the 
bottom of the ravine before many of our men had fallen, some 
killed outright, more wounded, among them my friend Cap- 
tain R. N. Moore, whom I sent to the rear as soon as I saw 
how he was wounded. When I saw how we were being butch- 
ered and discovered no ranking officer of the battalion taking 
charge, I endeavored to get the men to move forward without 
waiting to fire and reload. I saw General Gracie coming along 
in the rear of the line on foot. I ran to him and asked what 
orders he wished me to carry. He said: "Tell the men for 
God's sake to go forward." I then ran along the line repeating 
the General's order. The roar of the guns was so deafening 
that the men could scarcely hear me. While we were moving 
up the hill toward the breastworks and the battalion was not 
moving rapidly enough, I went in front of the line and mo- 
tioned the men to come on faster. It occurred to me that I 
did not want to be shot in the back. Just after I had turned to 



REMINISCENCES. 187 

face the enemy a Minie ball struck my left breast a little below 
the collar bone. So violent was the blow that it stopped m}' 
breath for some seconds. It burned like a coal of fire. I was 
sure that it had penetrated my chest. Lieutenant Joe Barker 
and one or two others ran to me and asked what they could do 
forme. I answered : "Never mind me. Go on faster!" This 
exhortation to the men recalled my thoughts from myself and 
rallied my mind from the first momentary depression. As soon 
as I could I drew a deep breath and found that I could not 
hawk up blood nor run my finger into a bullet hole in my 
breast. I saw that I was not yet killed, though badly stunned. 

I had my overcoat cape rolled up and swung over my left 
shoulder, with the ends fastened together and secured to my 
sword belt on the right side. The ball had passed through 
seven folds of this cape and lining, making fourteen cloths, 
through a heavily padded military coat, and through two shirts. 
But for striking the center of this roll, the elongated ounce 
missile would have passed through me and another man stand- 
ing in the line of Its course. God had saved my life, not by 
a twig or a grain of sand, as I had thought the night before 
He could do, but by means of my cape. 

There was a lull In the enemy's firing. Thomas was with- 
drawing the last of his forces. As the sun went down behind 
the hill they were all gone except the Twenty-First and Eighty- 
Ninth Ohio and the Twenty-Second Michigan Regiments. 
These commands had failed to receive the order to retire and 
were surrounded and captured by Kelley's and Trigg's Bri- 
gades, of our division. 

Thus ended the fighting of these two memorable days. But 
not so the suffering and the sorrow. As night spread her sa- 
ble curtain over the melancholy scene the men of the First 
Battalion who were left alive collected around the fires made 
of rails about three hundred yards from the fatal hill. Hither 
we brought our wounded. 

As soon as I was relieved from the strain of the battle I 
found that I was suffering severe pain In my ankle joint. This, 
though protected by a high-quartered shoe, was so badly 



i88 REMINISCENCES. 

bruised that it remained swollen for many days and gave me 
trouble at times for several months. The missile which struck 
my breast broke the skin, but did not pass through the flexible 
cartilage of the breastbone. The contusion was so great that 
the whole left side of my breast turned very dark in the next 
two or three days and then became a greenish hue, which did 
did not wholly fade out for two or three weeks. But I consid- 
ered myself fortunate indeed and almost forgot my slight 
scratches when I saw the great number of my comrades man- 
gled and bleeding and some of them dying. I have always re- 
membered with deep gratitude my narrow escape. 

I know that a soldier can die the death of a Christian, but 
his supreme motive in what he is fighting for must be the glory 
of Christ. One of the most triumphant deaths I ever witnessed 
was that of a soldier under the most unfavorable circumstances. 
I am not altogether satisfied with my action in this battle. 
While I had some patriotism and some sense of duty, I am 
convinced that pride and selfish ambition entered too largely 
into the motives that prompted my action. I am profoundly 
thankful that God has graciously spared my life for more than 
fifty years, whose discipline of disappointment, trial, and sor- 
row has, I trust, chastened the selfish ambitions of my young 
manhood. 

I should like to omit all record of the mournful scenes after 
this battle. The incidents were too numerous and too horrible 
to be mentioned in detail. I shall allude to only two comrades, 
who were lying around the fires on the cold rocky ground with 
little or no cover, and only one surgeon to stanch their bleeding 
wounds. "There was lack of woman's nursing, there was 
dearth of woman's tears." 

There lay a fine young man whom I had known at the Uni- 
versity. His life was ebbing away through a mortal wound. 
His pitiful cries for help were heart-rending as he called out : 
"O Dr. Wall, save me ! O Dr. Wall, don't let me die !" The 
Doctor could do nothing for him. He soon sank into uncon- 
sciousness and then into death. 

The other was also a splendid young man, as modest as he 



REMINISCENCES. 189 

was brave. He had been a leader in the rehgious meetings of 
the battalion, a youth of spotless character, proving that a man 
can keep himself pure in spite of the demoralizing influences of 
army life. His abdomen was so badly torn open that his in- 
testines were coming out on the ground. He knew that his end 
had come, yet he was the calmest and the happiest man in all 
that sorrowful company. His mind was perfectly clear. He 
said with a luminous smile that he was ready to go. He sent 
messages to his relatives at home. He bade us good-by as if 
he were going to his home in Montgomery. He then turned 
his thoughts toward heaven with serene confidence and glad 
anticipations, presenting a striking example that 

"Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel soft as downy pillows are." 

Thus passed into life eternal this valiant young soldier of the 
Legion, this triumphant young soldier of the cross. Blessed be 
thy memory, O Zeno Gayle ! 

When the sun rose on that field of death, those who were 
able had to engage in the melancholy task of sending home or 
burying our dead and, besides our own dead, fully as many of 
the enemy, but now enemies no more. Death takes the sting 
out of enmity. We were occupied in this woeful duty for two 
days. There were so many thousands of the dead to be buried 
that, it seemed to me, as I rode over the field the second day 
after the battle, there must have been hundreds of Federals 
still unburied. The odor arising from them and the dead 
horses was almost unbearable. How long these poor fellows 
remained unburied I do not know. 

General Bragg began moving his army up to Chattanooga 
on the 22d. On Wednesday morning, the 23d, all of Oracle's 
Brigade who were able to go followed with the purpose, it 
was reported, of storming the enemy's fortifications. I was 
not able to walk. But for the fact that I had a horse, I should 
have been compelled to remain in the field hospital, as Dr. Wall 
advised. With every muscle in my body sore and with my 
mind sad over the shocking sights of the last five days, I had 



I90 REMINISCENCES. 

no heart to make a charge on any more breastworks, nor could 
I keep myself from wincing under the bursting shells that ex- 
ploded over our heads. I did not have the firm nerves and 
physical stamina of which I was conscious on the morning of 
the 19th. I tried to brace my courage to make the charge on 
horseback if this should be commanded, but it would have been 
a most repulsive duty. I felt the revulsion which naturally 
comes after days of stirring endeavor. No man knows how 
brave he is till he has run the whole gamut of physical and 
mental conditions. No man can be uniformly brave without 
a high moral purpose to sustain him when animal courage is 
exhausted and temporary excitement has subsided. Napoleon 
is quoted as saying: "No man is brave at all times." General 
Grant has stated substantially the same psychological fact. I 
am sure that no man should waste his resources of valor in 
braggadocio. But In the presence of danger every man would 
be wise to go quietly and cautiously, relying on a Power higher 
than his own, as Washington and Lee and Stonewall Jackson 
were accustomed to do. 

In this connection I may offer what I consider the psycho- 
logical explanation of the fact that men feel so little fear while 
actually engaged in battle, whereas they felt so much in con- 
templating the danger beforehand. In the contemplation the 
sensibilities are in full play. In the active engagement the 
mental faculties are abnormally stimulated, while the opera- 
tion of the sensibilities is temporarily suspended. The soldier 
knows that he is in danger, but he does not feel it. He feels 
no gush of sorrow over a friend shot dead at his side, nor the 
usual sympathy for a wounded comrade writhing in agony, 
nor does he have the sense of fear which he would ordinarily 
experience — all because his power to feel is paralyzed for the 
time being. Moreover, our feelings become less sensitive from 
the sight of multiplied suffering and death on the battle field. 
My feelings were more moved when I saw the first dead man 
in McLemore's Cove than they were at the sight of hundreds 
on the field of Chickamauga. This blunting of the sensibilities 
is one of the evil effects of war. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Losses in the Battle — Consolidation of the Legion — Excursion across 
French Broad River — Three Men Shot for Desertion — Disillusioned of 
My Dreams of Military Glory— Return to the University — Captain D. 
Poynor, Professor Crawford H. Toy, Captain John Howard Murfee, 
and Mr. Paul F. Tricou — Dr. Thomas Osmond Summers — Professors 
E. R. Dickson, B. F. Meek, and H. M. Somerville — Fight at Chehaw — 
Corps Sent to Blue Mountain, Pollard, and Blakely — Sent with a Guard 
to North Alabama. 

IT was reported in army circles that General Longstreet was 
held back by General Bragg from storming the breastworks 
in front of Chattanooga. For some reason the attack was 
never made. Bragg decided to settle down for a regular siege. 
The left of his army rested at the foot of Lookout Mountain, 
the center extending about halfway between the city and Mis- 
sionary Ridge, running a little west of Orchard Knob, the 
right extending to the Tennessee River about two miles north 
of the city. Grade's Brigade occupied a position near the cen- 
ter of this line of investment. At first we were vigorously 
shelled by the Federal batteries. 

Now settled down in the siege, the first opportunity is given 
to speak fully of our losses in the recent battle. General Gracie 
says in his report : "The First Battalion, Alabama Legion, sus- 
tained the heaviest loss." Two-thirds of this battalion were 
either killed or wounded. I think we had the worst place 
in the whole line ; besides, I never have thought that our part 
of the line was as well managed as it might have been. I be- 
lieved then, as I believe still, that a more rapid charge would 
have been less fatal. We had no field officer in command. 
At the outset Lieutenant Colonel Holt was fatally wounded. 
Major Troy was absent on sick leave. None of the captains, 
so far as I saw, took active command of the battalion. As 
adjutant I did what I could to hasten our movement, which 
was retarded by constant firing and reloading ; while the Fed- 
erals, shielded behind their breastworks, had us out in the open 
at a great disadvantage. We should have got at them in the 

(191) 



192 REMINISCENCES. 

shortest order. I mean this criticism as a reflection on no one's 
courage, for it was not possible for any command (officers and 
men) to have shown more cool bravery in the face of death. 

Speaking of the losses in both armies, Federal Captain H. 
V. Boynton says: "Few, if any, of the great battles of the 
war show an equal amount of casualties, considering the num- 
bers engaged and the time of fighting. The losses of killed 
and wounded and missing for Rosecrans's army were sixteen 
thousand one hundred and seventy-nine." Most reports make 
the losses of the Confederate army about the same as those of 
the Federals. Captain J. C. McElroy, of the Eighteenth Ohio 
Regiment, says: "Both armies suffered severely in killed and 
wounded. It is estimated that not less than thirty thousand 
were struck with shot and shell during the two days' battle. 
No men on any battle field of the world ever exhibited great- 
er personal daring or more steadfast courage than was dis- 
played at Chickamauga by rank and file of both armies ; and 
while we may bitterly regret the carnage, grief, and waste 
which resulted from the conflict, we cannot feel otherwise than 
proud of the stubborn valor manifested in this engagement by 
the American soldier, whether he wore the blue or the gray." 

During this siege Lieutenant Colonel Holt died from the 
effect of his wound, and also Captain R. N. Moore, two splen- 
did Christian gentlemen whose passing was an occasion of sor- 
row to the whole battalion. The death of Lieutenant Colonel 
Holt made way for the promotion of Major Daniel S. Troy to 
the rank of lieutenant colonel and gave him the command of 
the battalion. He was a true friend whose name I shall have 
occasion to mention several times hereafter. 

The siege became very monotonous and disagreeable. When 
it rained, we moved around in the mud. There was no drain- 
age for our camp. Our water supply was very impure. The 
location soon became unsanitary. Our rations consisted of 
"blue" beef and cornbread made out of musty meal. These 
conditions brought on a good deal of dysentery. I became 
very unwell with the prevailing disease^ — the only time I was 
sick during the war. The doctor was not able to check my 



REMINISCENCES. 193 

malady, which seemed in danger of becoming chronic. Upon 
the recommendation of Dr. Wall and Lieutenant Colonel Troy, 
I was granted a furlough of twenty days. I left the camp 
about the last of October. 

On the 4th of November Longstreet's Corps was sent to 
Knoxville to check Burnside's operations in East Tennessee. 
Grade's Brigade soon followed and became a part of Long- 
street's Corps for the remainder of the war. 

Before my furlough was out I started back to the command. 
In Atlanta I met some of my comrades who had been sick and 
wounded and who were returning to the army. We were in- 
formed that our brigade had gone into East Tennessee with 
Longstreet, that the railroad had been cut, and that we would 
have to go around through the Carolinas and Virginia. We 
made this trip in box cars during a very cold spell of weather. 
When we reached Bristol, Tennessee, we found the bridges 
destroyed and the railroads all torn up. There was nothing 
left to do but to go on foot from Bristol to our command, 
which we found at Dandridge, Tennessee, a distance of fully 
a hundred miles. The weather was extremely cold. Snow 
and ice covered the railroad track over which we had to trav- 
el, sometimes walking the slippery timbers of trestles and 
broken bridges, sometimes sleeping on the frozen ground by 
a log fire when we could not get a depot or other shelter to 
cover us. We had no rations except such as we could buy. 
Provisions were scarce, as both armies had been over the coun- 
try. One night, in company with Captain Stokes, of the Third 
Battalion, and several soldiers, I was sleeping in the office of 
a railroad depot. After we had lain down, a soldier came and 
whispered to the captain, saying : "Captain, if you hear any one 
come into the room during the night, just remain fast asleep, 
and it will be all right." When we awoke the next morning, 
we found our haversacks filled with nice barbecued kid. The 
fellows had found a herd of goats, had killed one or two, and 
barbecued the meat. We ate of it freely and asked no ques- 
tions. After a tramp of some five or six days, we found the 
brigade at Dandridge, thirty miles east of Knoxville. 

13 



194 REMINISCENCES. 

Consolidation of the Legion. 

I had been so long cut off from the command that I knew 
nothing of what had happened. I found that the four depleted 
battalions of the Legion had been consolidated into two regi- 
ments. The six companies of the Second Battalion and the 
four companies of the Fourth had been formed into the Fifty- 
Ninth Alabama Regiment, and four companies (A, B, C, and 
D) of the First Battalion, with the six companies of the Third, 
had been formed into the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment. The 
remaining three companies (E, F, and G) of the First Battal- 
ion had been organized into the Forty-Third Battalion of Ala- 
bama Sharpshooters. Colonel John W. A. Sanford was made 
colonel of the Sixtieth Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel 
S. Troy lieutenant colonel, and Major Hatch Cook major. 
According to military usage, the colonel carrying the larger 
number of companies into the Sixtieth Regiment had the priv- 
ilege of choosing his staff officers. This left me without a 
place in the regiment. I was disappointed, but had no just 
ground of complaint. Lieutenant Colonel Troy had been my 
friend as captain of Company A and as major and lieutenant 
colonel of the First Battalion. He directed me to remain with 
the regiment on such duty as might be assigned me until he 
could hear from the War Department, to which he had sent a 
communication before leaving Chattanooga recommending me 
for honorable mention and for promotion. He felt sure, he 
said, that I would be assigned to duty in some branch of the 
service. Not hearing anything from his recommendation for 
some weeks, he wrote again, sending the paper up through the 
regular channels, with the approval of the officials through 
whose hands it had to pass. 

Excursion across French Broad River. 

While we were at Dandridge in January part of Long- 
street's Corps, under General Bushrod Johnson, accompanied 
by Longstreet himself, made an expedition across French 
Broad River in pursuit of a Federal party sent from Knoxville. 



REMINISCENCES. 195 

On this excursion I had my first and only full view of General 
Longstreet, The most exciting thing on this excursion was 
the fording of French Broad River. At the point of crossing, 
the river is separated into three channels by some islands, each 
channel being about seventy-five or eighty yards wide, from 
three to four feet deep, and very swift. The men had to go 
across ten abreast to keep from being washed down by the 
current. The water came halfway up our saddle skirts. My 
little horse found it hard work to stand up against the force of 
the stream. After getting across and going a few miles, we 
had a sharp skirmish with the retreating enemy. In this skir- 
mish my friend Captain R. A. Middleton was dangerously 
wounded. After spending two or three days on the eastern 
side without tents or baggage, we returned to Dandridge. 

As Longstreet was cut off from the main army and had no 
railroad connections with the South or with Virginia, he had 
to depend on the country for his commissary supplies. This 
prevented him from remaining long in any one place. The 
soldiers built huts in one or two places, but soon had to leave 
them in order to get provisions in new territory. The winter 
was intensely cold, and the men were poorly supplied with 
clothing, shoes, and blankets. There was a great deal of suf- 
fering. 

There was another trouble besides sickness liable to grow 
out of the unfavorable conditions of camp life. Owing to in- 
sufficient clothing for necessary changes and lack of adequate 
facilities for bathing, some of the men became infested with 
body lice, a most disgusting nuisance. There was danger of 
these vermin being dropped in the camp and spreading among 
other men. So much afraid of this was I that I went outside 
of the encampment, stripped off my clothes, examined them 
thoroughly, and bathed myself in a pond of freezing water 
while the cold wind whistled around me. The modern Euro- 
pean soldiers are subjected to frightful conditions, but their 
sanitation is much better looked after than was sometimes 
possible among the Confederate soldiers in 1864. 



196 REMINISCENCES. 

Three Men Shot for Desertion, 

Another incident during my connection with Longstreet's 
Corps was a mournful sight to behold. The whole command 
was drawn up in some open fields to witness the execution of 
three men who had been tried by a court-martial and con- 
demned to be shot for desertion, the greatest crime known in 
military discipline. A squad of fourteen men had been detailed 
to do the shooting. That these men should not know which one 
did the killing, guns were handed to them on the eve of the exe- 
cution, every other one loaded with a blank cartridge. The 
three deserters were led out blindfolded and made to kneel with 
their backs to the squad. At the command, "Ready, aim, fire !" 
the condemned men fell over dead. I have forgotten to what 
command they belonged. They were not Alabamians. No 
soldier of the Legion was, during my connection with it, accused 
of desertion and only one of poltroonery, a fellow who shot 
himself through the hand in order to get a discharge from the 
service, as was believed by his captain, though the man claimed 
that it was accidental. 

During the last year of the war great pressure was brought 
to bear on some poor fellows on account of the suffering of 
their families at home. To this pressure some men did yield. 
I do not believe that any private pressure, however urgent, can 
justify a breach of the sacramentum, or military oath, when 
voluntarily taken in defense of one's country. Some honorable 
way of relief should be found. 

Disillusioned of My Dreams of Military Glory. 

After weeks of weary waiting, the communication in regard 
to my status was returned by some official of the War Depart- 
ment in the name of S. Cooper, Adjutant General, with this 
indorsement: "No such name on our roster as Adjutant John 
Massey." This disappointed and disillusioned me of my 
dreams of military glory. This convinced me that the Con- 
federate authorities did not set any value on my services in the 
iield. 

I had in my pocket a letter from Dr. Garland inviting me for 



REMINISCENCES. 197 

the third time to return to the University. I had been thinking 
all along that I was serving my country more effectively in the 
field than I could at the institution. Upon this unexpected turn 
of affairs I took a statement from Colonel Troy, with Dr. Gar- 
land's letter, to General Longstreet's headquarters and ob- 
tained a passport to the University. The action of the War 
Department set me free to return to the position which had 
been open to me ever since I left it in June, 1862. 

Although disappointed at the time, I have congratulated 
myself ever since that the matter turned out as it did. I believe 
that there was a good Providence in it all. By reviewing my 
studies and teaching a year in the University I was better pre- 
pared for what came as my life work than I would have been 
by remaining in the field. I have long been of the firm belief 
that God had in store for me something better in helping to 
make good men and women than I would have had in seeking 
glory through a profession whose object is the destruction of 
men. Now, in my eighty-second year, I would rather feel the 
consciousness of having endeavored to inspire several thousand 
young people with nobler ideals of life and to imbue them with 
the just fear of God and the love of their fellow men than to 
have won the privilege of wearing the title of major general. 

I have had some satisfaction in finding that the Confederate 
War Department did have my name on its roster, as appears 
in the records published after the war. The following extract 
is from the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," 
Series I., Volume XXX., Part II., page 534: 

Roll of Honor, First Battalion, Alabama Legion: Adjutant John Mas- 
sey; Private John H. Connor,* Company A; Private J. E. Wright, Com- 
pany B; Private James M. Gibson, Company C; Private B. A. Davis,* 
Company D ; Sergeant J. L. Cox,* Company E ; Private A. J. Daw,* Com- 
pany F. 

Mr. Connor went into the fight saying : "I shall be killed 
to-day." He fell right at the breastworks, shot in the fore- 
head. He was as brave a man as ever breathed. The above 

*Killed in battle. 



iqS reminiscences. 

seven names are all of the First Battalion that are mentioned, 
though I feel sure that many others are just as deserving of 
public mention. 

From the "Confederate Military History," published in 
1899, Volume VII., pages 695 and 696, the following extract 
is taken : 

John Massey, LL.D., one of the most eminent educators of Alabama, 
was born December 16, 1834, and was graduated at the University of 
Alabama in 1862. . . . He enhsted in Milliard's Legion and was ap- 
pointed adjutant of the First Battalion. In the battle of Chickamauga he 
was distinguished for gallantry and won a place on the roll of honor. He 
was twice wounded while leading his battalion in the last charge up the 
heights of Snodgrass Hill on the evening of September 20, 1863. Llewellyn 
A. Shaver, in his "History of the Sixteenth Alabama Regiment," into 
which part of the First Battalion was merged, says: "It is due that in- 
comparable soldier and gentleman, John Massey, adjutant of the First 
Battalion, to mention the fact that at a meeting of the battalion some- 
time after the battle it was the unhesitating sentiment of all that his gal- 
lantry in the battle of Chickamauga was too conspicuous to pass unnoticed 
by his comrades or unrewarded by his country, and accordingly his name 
was subsequently forwarded to the War Department with the urgent rec- 
ommendation for promotion." 

I have no regrets for having gone into the war. In going I 
obeyed some of my best impulses. I have no regrets on ac- 
count of leaving the army when I did. On retiring I obeyed 
the call of duty as I then saw it. 

In this connection I wish to state that I am under lasting 
obligation to the officers and men of the First Battalion for 
their kind and respectful treatment. Of Colonel Thorington, 
Lieutenant Colonel Holt, Lieutenant Colonel Troy, Surgeon 
Conrad Wall, Ordnance Sergeant William H. Micou, and Ser- 
geant Major Keyes I have already made special mention. I 
wish also to add to these Sergeant Major Llewellyn A. Shaver, 
who was my sergeant major after the retirement of Mr. 
Keyes. His fidelity to every duty imposed secured for him the 
cognomen, "Shaver the Faithful." After passing safely 
through the war, he led the life of a useful citizen till his death, 
in 1912, 



REMINISCENCES. 199 

Return to the University. 

The passport was granted by General Longstreet without 
any question or hesitancy. I bade farewell to my friends, 
many of whom I never saw again. I had to return through 
Virginia and the Carolinas. I reached the University about the 
last of February, 1864. 

During the years of my college course it had been my inten- 
tion to study law. As far as I could spare the time from my 
regular work as assistant professor, I began the study of law 
under Judge W. Moody, the father of Hon. Frank S. Moody, 
of Tuscaloosa. The Judge was the son-in-law of Mrs. Sims, 
of whom I have on a former page made grateful mention. 
Partly owing to this relation to my friend Mrs. Sims and part- 
ly to his own great kindness, he was exceedingly obliging in 
lending his law books and in directing my studies during the 
last year of the war. 

In my classes in the University this year of 1864-65 there 
were a number of young men — too young to go into the war — ■ 
who have since risen to eminence, among them Chief Justice J. 
R. Dowdell, Hon. H. S. D. Mallory, and Judge Joseph N. 
Miller. When young Dowdell came to the University, he was 
small and very youthful in appearance — too young, some 
thought, to be a cadet. But when it was announced that he was 
the son of James F. Dowdell, Dr. Garland said : "I know there 
is something in him if he came out of the loins of James F. 
Dowdell." Mr. Dowdell had graduated under the Doctor at 
Randolph-Macon College. 

Captain D. Poynor. 

My roommate at this time (1864) was Captain D. Poynor, 
who had come to the University in September, 1861, as In- 
structor of Military Tactics, but who was later Assistant in 
Mathematics. I had not become intimate with him till I re- 
turned to the University and was invited to room with him. 
He had the distinctive traits of a Virginian of the best type. 
He was bom in Lawrencevllle, Brunswick County, Virginia, 
November 14, 1835, ^^^ was graduated from the Virginia 



20O REMINISCENCES. 

Military Institute in July, i860. He was a man of dignity 
and, to strangers, of rather reserved temperament. He was a 
man of fine native ability and had, by study and good reading, 
become well informed for a man of his years. He was tall, 
slender, and of erect stature, the fitting counterpart of a char- 
acter which was formed on principles of rectitude and inspired 
by the soul of honor. Like the rest of us mortals, he had his 
temperamental weaknesses. His hcte noir was that demon 
which haunts but never kills, a tendency to indigestion. I 
think some of his individual traits were intensified by his 
malady. Whatever deficiencies he had in his make-up leaned 
to virtue's side, a candor that was not always mixed with policy 
and a modesty that did not do full justice to his ability. Be- 
neath a bearing of hauteur that sometimes caused him to be 
misunderstood, there was a kind and sympathetic heart when 
one got close enough to him to feel it. He was a member of 
the Fraternity, a club that sprang out of warm personal friend- 
ships and, without constitution or by-laws, had nothing to hold 
it in existence but the affectionate regard existing among its 
members. It consisted of William J. Vaughn, Eugene A. 
Smith, D. Poynor, Paul F. Tricou, and the writer of these 
reminiscences, together with several young lady friends who, 
I suppose, were rather more than honorary members, as three 
of them afterwards became the wives of three of the members 
of the Fraternity. I mention this club to show in what esteem 
Poynor was held by his comrades. 

From Captain Poynor I learned more of the atmosphere of 
the Virginia Military Institute and of the characteristics of 
some of its professors than I would probably ever have learned 
otherwise. He made some incidents seem very vivid. I recall 
some of these about Major Jackson, who afterwards became 
famous as "Stonewall" Jackson. He was noted for his habit 
of sitting for long periods with solemn mien and folded arms 
meditating, a prominent feature of his devotional life. He was 
so awkward in his manners as to be the butt of ridicule and so 
rigid in his exactions as to become the target upon which of- 
fenders vented their spleen. On one occasion a student threw 



REMINISCENCES. 201 

a heavy weight, barely missing the Major as he was passing 
under a window. The Major was not in the least disturbed, 
merely remarking : "I believe he intended to kill me." 

Captain Poynor had a vivid recollection of how pleased 
Major Jackson was when he was getting ready to take charge 
of a body of Virginia troops. He seemed to scent *'the battle 
from afar" and to hear, like the war horse described in Job, 
"the thunder and the shoutings." He looked more pleased 
than Poynor had ever seen him. The prospect of war trans- 
formed him from an ungraceful professor into a veritable son 
of Mars, making a much more admirable figure in the field of 
war than he had been in the dull routine of college life. 

There must be latent powers in some men that never appear 
till the proper occasion brings them out. I here recall a state- 
ment of General Dick Taylor's published in the North Ameri- 
can Review: "We cannot tell how great Stonewall Jackson was. 
He measured fully up to every occasion. We do not know how 
much more brilliantly his genius would have shone if it had 
been tested by greater occasions." Something of this latent 
power was developed in General Grant and General Forrest. 
General Lee's genius was already known, at least to General 
Scott, who said : "Lee is the greatest military genius on the 
American Continent." 

Captain Poynor has moved on in the even tenor of private 
life and has reared a large and excellent family. One of his 
sons is an Episcopal minister, two others are merchants and 
farmers and are filially caring for their parents in their old 
age, and two of his daughters are graduates of the University 
and are filling responsible positions in prominent schools of the 
State. I would say : "A blessing on you, my friend ! You 
have served your generation better than many a man who has 
climbed into public position." 

Professor Crawford H. Toy, Captain John Howard Mur- 
FEE, and Mr. Paul F. Tricou. 

On my return to the University I found three new men con- 
nected with the work of instruction and administration — Craw- 



202 REMINISCENCES. 

ford H. Toy, Captain John Howard Murfee, and Paul F. Tri- 
coLi. Professor Toy had taken the place of Professor Benagh 
in the chair of Mixed Mathematics. He was a graduate of the 
University of Virginia and was a man highly gifted in linguis- 
tic talents, as has been stated by Dr. Gross Alexander and as 
his subsequent career plainly shows ; but he was not considered 
the equal of Professor Benagh in the Department of Mixed 
Mathematics. 

Being an ordained Baptist minister, he was Chaplain of the 
University. One part of his duties was to conduct prayers in 
the Rotunda before breakfast each morning and to preach to 
the corps occasionally on Sunday afternoons. His sermons 
were always intellectual, but, as the boys thought, very dry. 
His prayers were rather long and almost always included a 
petition for the heathen. One morning he detained the corps 
longer than usual. The officer of the day was waiting at the 
door of the mess hall for the corps to come to breakfast. See- 
ing the sergeant of the guard coming from the Rotunda, he 
inquired: "How long before the corps will be out?" The ser- 
geant replied: ''Some time yet. Old Toy has just got to the 
heathen." 

For many years Dr. Toy has been Professor in Harvard 
University and is an authority on Sanskrit and Eastern lan- 
guages. He, D. Poynor, W. J. Vaughn, B. F. Meek, E. A. 
Smith, P. F. Tricou, J. H. Murfee, and the writer took their 
meals together in a small room on the second floor of the mess 
hall building from February, 1864, to April 3, 1865. Dr. Toy 
contributed to the pleasure of our association by his dignified 
and intelligent conversation. I am glad to have known so dis- 
tinguished a gentleman. 

Captain Murfee was the State Captain of Company C during 
this time. He gallantly led the skirmish line against the Fed- 
erals on the night of April 3, 1865, and was severely wounded 
in this action, which will be described in the next chapter. 

Mr. Tricou was a young man of French extraction. He 
had gone into the army with some company from New Or- 
leans and was severely wounded and temporarily disabled for 



REMINISCENCES. 203 

field service. He had been employed by the University as book- 
keeper. For this position he was well qualified. He was 
bright, amiable, and clean in his conversation and habits of life 
— altogether a lovable young man, considered worthy to be a 
member of our Fraternity. He returned to New Orleans after 
the war and died in 1901. I never saw him after we separated 
in the spring of 1865. 

Dr. Thomas Osmond Summers. 

Also during this notable year of 1864, on my return to the 
University, I found Dr. Thomas Osmond Summers, pastor of 
the ]\Iethodist Church, He had been connected with the Pub- 
lishing House ; and when the Federals occupied Nashville and 
the Publishing House, Dr. Summers came to Tuscaloosa by 
private conveyance through North Alabama over "the moun- 
tains of Gilboa," as he called them. He was a very learned 
man, styled "a walking library" by some of his friends. He 
was peculiar, almost eccentric, in his manners. He was my pas- 
tor during my second connection with the University. He was 
very cordial and frequently invited me to his house to dinner 
after church on Sundays. He was very candid in criticizing 
my faults, which, I have no doubt, needed much pruning. He 
did this in so kindly a manner that I felt grateful instead of tak- 
ing ofifense. It is not every well-meaning person who can chop 
off our excrescences without so wounding as to do more harm 
than good. This service Dr. Summers could render without 
losing his hold on the subject. I think I am under obligation 
to make special mention of him. 

He was born in Dorsetshire, England, in 1812; came to the 
United States in 1830 and was admitted into the Baltimore Con- 
ference in 1835 ; went to the republic of Texas and was active 
in the organization of the Texas Confei^ence in 1840; came to 
Alabama in 1843, soliciting money for Texas Methodism. 
While on this tour he exhibited some Texas frogs, showing 
his taste for zoology, such taste as he had for nearly everything 
else in the universe. He visited Tuscaloosa, where he met Miss 
Marsilla Sexton. She was, according to an old Methodist cus- 



204 REMINISCENCES. 

torn, recommended to him as a suitable young woman for his 
future wife. He married her in 1844 ^^'^ was stationed in 
Tuscaloosa. 

When I knew him in 1864, he was in his second pastorate in 
that charge. After the war Dr. Summers returned to Nash- 
ville and was editor of the Christian Advocate till 1878. In 
1875 he was elected Professor of Systematic Theology in Van- 
derbilt University, and there he remained till his death, in 1882. 
While he was a man of prodigious learning, more learned in 
some respects than Dr. Manly or Dr. Garland, he was not the 
equal of either of these elect sons of humanity in power to rule 
men. He kept his membership in the Alabama Conference to 
the day of his death. So we may claim him as an Alabamian. 

During this memorable year I became engaged to Miss Fre- 
donia A. Taylor, whose attractive face had arrested my atten- 
tion, whose brilliant talents captivated my imagination, whose 
candor compelled my respect, and whose charming personality 
won my affections. 

Professors E. R. Dickson, B. F. Meek, and H. M. 

somerville. 

I found Professor E. R. Dickson, Professor B. F. Meek, and 
Professor H. M. Somerville teaching in the University. Pro- 
fessor Dickson was a graduate of Yale College. He had taught 
in the Tuskegee Female College before going to the University. 
He was a man of ripe scholarship, especially in philological 
subjects. From him I got the idea of tracing many of our 
English words back to their origin in the Greek and Latin 
languages, a plan I used with my classes in teaching those sub- 
jects. 

After the war Professor Dickson went to Mobile, taught a 
private school awhile, and finally was elected Superintendent 
of the Public Schools of Mobile County. In this position he 
remained many years. His oldest son, Rockwell, was a pupil 
of mine in Mobile and was distinguished for his originality in 
mathematics. 

Professor Dickson was regarded by some people as hard. 



REMINISCENCES. 205 

uncivil, and boorish in his manners. This was an instance of 
how much a man may be misunderstood. I had the pleasure of 
visiting him and his family in his home out at the end of Dau- 
phin Way. On one occasion my family spent the night with 
him. I have never seen a more genial household. Mrs. Dick- 
son played the organ, and we had some singing, in which Mr. 
Dickson joined with much zest. When Fannie J. Crosby's 
hymn, 

"Pass me not, O gentle Saviour, 
Hear my humble cry; 
While on others thou art calling, 
Do not pass me by," 

was sung, he said with manifest feeling: "That is my favorite 
hymn." At the core he was true and warm-hearted. He was 
a brave, independent man whom you could drive back into his 
shell by cool treatment, but whom you could draw out into one 
of the sunniest of men by turning your kind side to him. 

Professor Benjamin F. Meek, a younger brother of Alexan- 
der Beaufort Meek, had been a teacher in Barton Academy in 
Mobile, but was now assistant professor in the University. He 
was a man of decided literary taste and extensive culture. In 
physique he was very large and angular, with light hair, blond 
complexion, and a peculiar nervous movement of the head and 
eyes that gave him a restless air. He was brave, sensitive, and 
easily offended, but just as ready to offer an apology and for- 
give an offense when reparation was duly made. I saw this 
exhibited on one occasion when he had misunderstood a re- 
mark made by a friend and had answered in a cutting reply. 
After two or three spirited rejoinders had been passed between 
the two men and they were in the act of coming into conflict, I 
stood between them, holding them apart at arms' length and 
affirming: "Gentlemen, you have misunderstood each other." 
I said to the friend who had made the first remark : "You did 
not mean any offense by your first remark, did you?" He an- 
swered : "No. I am surprised that he took it so." I then 
asked Mr. Meek : "Will you take back the offensive remark 
3'ou made?" He replied: "Yes; and I will apologize, as no 



2o6 REMINISCENCES. 

offense was intended." As soon as I could get each of the sev- 
eral offensive words retracted, I stated : "Now, gentlemen, 
there is nothing between you. Shake hands and let bygones 
be bygones." They did and were friends, just as they had 
been before. 

This incident shows how conflicts arise and how they may 
be settled among brave, honest men. It is not so easy to settle 
a fuss among cowards. 

After the war, when the University had been restored to its 
normal condition, Professor Meek was placed in the chair of 
English Literature, a position which he filled with marked abil- 
ity till his death. He was a good man, who felt the responsi- 
bility of inculcating a religious spirit in the institution. He 
persisted in going to the chapel and opening the morning ses- 
sions with religious service as long as he was able to walk. 
Such men's influence does not die with them. 

Professor Henderson M. Somerville was a man of decided 
talent. This was shown not only in the role of pedagogue, but 
at the bar and on the bench in later years. During the early 
years of Reconstruction it was a common thing to have white 
men arraigned before the United States Court under Judge 
Busteed, a Radical judge noted for his arbitrary and harsh 
rulings. He was the analogue of Lord Jeffreys, of England. 
On flimsy and one-sided evidence he frequently sent the ac- 
cused to the Dry Tortugas. In one of these trials Mr. Som- 
erville was employed as counsel for the defendants. The judge 
reluctantly granted him only an unreasonably short time to 
prepare his case, but he presented it in such a masterly way as 
to secure the release of his clients and make a fine reputation 
for ability as an attorney. He became distinguished as a jurist, 
whose career was closed by death in 191 5. 

Fight at Chehaw. 

At the commencement in June, 1864, the cadets were fur- 
loughed to rendezvous in Selma about the middle of July. 
Governor Watts attended the commencement and made a pa- 
triotic address. As he was leaving for home he heard of Rous- 



REMINISCENCES. 207 

seau's raid through Northeast Alabama. He hurried back to 
Montgomery and there learned of the near approach of the 
raiders. He called together all the cadets who lived in or near 
the city and those who were passing through on their way 
home, organized them into a company, and sent them with the 
Home Guards of the city on a special train to Chehaw, where 
they met the raiders in a spirited action and turned them away 
from Montgomery and no doubt saved the city from destruc- 
tion. Cadet Robert J. McCreary, of Evergreen, Alabama, re- 
ceived a dangerous wound in the breast from which he finally 
recovered, and Cadet William B. Gilmer received a severe 
wound in the knee which grievously lamed him for life. I 
knew him well through his long and upright life and had the 
honor of graduating his daughter, Miss Leonora Gilmer, in 
1901. There were some other casualties, among them a young 
man from Montgomery by the name of Theodore Bethea, who 
was killed. 

I once heard the remark made that it was a pity to be killed 
in a little obscure backwoods skirmish. I have taken some 
pains to give the details accurately; for the subjects of them 
deserve as much credit as if they had fallen on any one of the 
world-renowned fields of Chancellors ville, Chickamauga, or 
Gettysburg. Their honor lies not in the greatness of the battle, 
but in their prompt obedience and in their fine spirit of valor. 
On account of their prompt response to his call and their gal- 
lantry in the fight, the Governor extended the furloughs of 
these cadets for a few days. On the expiration of the fur- 
loughs they all but one reported for duty in Selma. 

Corps Sent to Blue Mountain, Pollard, and Blakely. 

The corps was soon moved from Selma to Blue Mountain, 
then the terminus of the Selma, Rome, and Dalton Railroad 
and one mile above the present city of Anniston. After camp- 
ing here a few days, we were moved as a guard to Coosa River 
Bridge. Early in August we moved back to Selma and up the 
river to Montgomery, where the corps was reviewed by the 
Governor, and that evening took the train to Pollard. 



2o8 REMINISCENCES. 

On our arrival in Pollard we found several companies of 
militia composed of old men, too old and infirm to be in the 
regular service. They had no officers who knew anything 
about military tactics. They were armed with such old guns 
as they could pick up. Colonel Murfee was placed in command 
of all the troops at this point. He ordered me to take charge 
of the militia companies. I found that they could not drill 
with their stiff, rheumatic, and sore legs. This was a disap'- 
pointment to me. I had been so accustomed to the drill in the 
corps of cadets and in the army that I did not think much of a 
command that could not move with promptness and precision 
at any order that might be given. If we should be attacked in 
our position, these old fathers might shoot as best they could 
with their old guns; but if we should have to move forward to 
make an attack, I did not see how they could advance, and I 
was sure that they would make a poor appearance in a retreat 
such as we had to make out of Kentucky. I felt the great dif- 
ference in the efficiency of these old undisciplined militiamen 
and that of the Legion which I had helped to lead up Snod- 
grass Hill the year before. 

A Httle later the corps moved to Old Blakely, where a detail 
of cadets was stationed on guard duty at General Liddell's 
headquarters, in the old courthouse. After spending several 
weeks around Blakely, Saluda Hill, and Pollard, expecting an 
attack on the eastern shore of Mobile River, we were ordered 
back to Montgomery and furloughed for a few days with or- 
ders to assemble at the University for the approaching session. 

This year of 1864-65 was one of much uncertainty and anx- 
iety. About the middle of December Mobile was thought to 
be in imminent danger. The corps was ordered to the city to 
aid in its defense. The trip was made on the steamboat Ger- 
trude during an intensely cold spell, when everything was cov- 
ered with snow and sleet. The boys were in high glee over the 
prospect of active service. Before leaving the University they 
were furnished with three days' rations. Many of them ate 
the whole supply the first day and had nothing to eat the next 
two days. When they reached the city, they were so hungry 



REMINISCENCES. 209 

that they eagerly ran after the old women who were selling 
ginger cakes around the docks. During their stay of about 
ten days they were stationed out at Spring Hill. The most 
striking service they were called on to render was to escort 
Admiral Raphael Semmes from the railroad station to his 
his home on his return after the destruction of the Alabama. 
As no attack was made on the city, the corps was ordered 
back to the University. 

Sent with Guard to North Alabama. 

Provisions were getting scarce, not only in the army, but also 
at the University. We had to get our flour from mills in North 
Alabama and had to haul it in our own wagons. Bushwhack- 
ers and robbers infested these northern counties, taking horses 
and any other property they could capture, sometimes commit- 
ting arson and murder. It was dangerous to send teams with- 
out a strong guard. I was sent in command of a squad of ca- 
dets to get a supply of flour from one of the mills not far from 
where the city of Birmingham is now located. It required 
about a week to make these trips. While we were in this re- 
gion we kept constantly on the alert and at night selected a 
suitable position for defense, tied our teams a little distance 
from the wagons, and slept on our arms close to the teams, with 
one man always on guard. We went well armed. Thus pro- 
tected, no harm ever came to the University teams, while depre- 
dations were quite common in that section. I mention this to 
show what a deplorable state the country was in. 

Many were beginning to feel that the only hopes of the 
Southern cause centered in General Lee and his army. How- 
ever dark every prospect seemed, our faith still stood firm in 
this incomparable man. Our faith was not misplaced; for, 
after everything finally crumbled away from him, when in the 
history of the world did a commander ever rise so gloriously 
out of defeat? 
14 



CHAPTER XVII. 

University Burned — Members of Corps Wounded — March to Marion — 
Corps Disbanded — Starting to Join General Lee's Army — The Assassi- 
nation of President Lincoln — Back to Choctaw County — The School at 
Mount Sterling — The Oath of Allegiance — Rev. J. W. Rush — Marriage 
to Miss Fredonia A. Taylor — The Taylor Family. 

CONDITIONS were unfavorable for doing college work. 
Indeed, college work would have been impossible if we 
had not become accustomed to this chronic state of uncertainty 
and impending danger. We could not remain keyed up to high 
tension all the time. For several months a guard had been kept 
at the bridge over the river and on all the roads leading into 
Tuscaloosa. This guard was made up alternately of a detail 
from the corps of the cadets, who performed the duty one day, 
and of a like detail from the Home Guards, who performed the 
service the next day. The night the Federals entered the city 
the Home Guards were on duty. So we managed to go on 
with our work till Monday night, April 3, 1865. We went to 
bed that night, as usual, knowing that guards were on duty at 
the bridge and on all the roads. 

At midnight the long roll was sounded with alarming vigor. 
Cadet Captain Sam Will John, who was awake, heard Dr. Gar- 
land running along the walk calling out : "Beat the long roll. 
The Yankees are in town." The corps, consisting of three 
hundred cadets, was promptly formed and marched down Main 
Street in quick time. Colonel Murfee threw out a line of skir- 
mishers which was gallantly led by Captain John Howard 
Murfee, who drove back a detachment of Federals toward the 
river. The Colonel also ordered me to take two or three men 
and go down the back street between Main and the river, to 
see that the enemy should not come in unawares behind the 
corps. This street ran by Dr. Leach's, parallel with Main, and 
at right angles to the street leading to the bridge. Professor 
W. J. Vaughn and P. F. Tricou accompanied me. As we 
passed Dr. Leach's we could see in the starlight a large num- 
(210) 



REMINISCENCES. 211 

ber of carriages and buggies standing around the yard without 
any horses hitched to them. About the time we entered this 
back street we heard sharp firing on Main Street, which ceased 
after a few rounds. As we proceeded we observed no sign of 
any one till we reached the corner of Washington Hall. As 
soon as I cleared the corner I heard a voice in a sharp tone call 
out: "Who goes there?" I gave my name promptly, as I knew 
the voice to be that of Ed Vaughan, a former college mate. 
"Hello, John," he said. "I came within an ace of shooting 
you. It has not been a minute since the Yankees were shooting 
at me from this corner." After the firing ceased on Main 
Street, everything was still. In a few minutes the corps had 
turned from Main into the street running to the river bridge 
and was drawn up in line across the street. There was an om- 
inous silence. After waiting a minute or two, I said tO' the 
officer at the head of the column : "I will go down toward the 
river and reconnoiter. Tell the boys not to shoot while I am 
in front." As I started Ed and Clay Vaughan followed me, 
talking. I reminded them to keep quiet, as the enemy would 
locate us by our voices. I went to the right, one of the 
Vaughans took the center, and the other the left side of the 
street. I think we had gone about sixty or seventy yards 
when I heard a voice with an Irish brogue call out : "Who goes 
there?" We made no reply. The voice came again: "Who 
goes there?" Clay Vaughan in a clear voice answered: "A 
Rebel." I heard the click of muskets a few steps ahead and 
knew what was coming. I raised my gun to take aim at the 
blaze which came as quick as a thought. We all three fired at 
the blaze. The whole Federal squad fired at us. The cadets 
turned loose a volley, filling the street with bullets as thick as 
hailstones in a thunderstorm. We were between the fires, but 
none of us was struck. 

In a few moments the firing ceased, and we returned to the 
corps. I was surprised to see a soldier dressed in blue stand- 
ing near the head of the corps and, a few feet away. Dr. Gar- 
land and Colonel Murfee in very earnest conversation in an 
undertone with a Confederate officer. 



212 REMINISCENCES. 

In a moment or two Colonel Murfee, without a word of ex- 
planation, marched us back to the University in quick time. I 
was mystified till the matter was explained. The Confederate 
officer was Captain Carpenter, who had that night been mar- 
ried to Miss Emily Leach. The vehicles I saw at Dr. Leach's 
door had brought the wedding guests. The Federals had sur- 
prised the guard at the bridge, had entered the town, captured 
two pieces of artillery and all the horses, including those at the 
wedding party. They had also taken Captain Carpenter pris- 
oner and carried him to General Croxton, at the bridge. Gen- 
eral Croxton and Captain Carpenter were both from Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, and knew each other well. The Captain in- 
formed the General that he had just been married and request- 
ed to be sent under guard to inform his bride that, though a 
prisoner, he was safe and would not be harmed. On his return 
from Dr. Leach's he called Dr. Garland and Colonel Murfee 
aside and told them that the Federals were fourteen hundred 
strong, that they held the bridge and were fortified behind cot- 
ton bales, that it would be a useless sacrifice of life to attack so 
large a force of seasoned soldiers with only three hundred 
young boys, and advised the Doctor and the Colonel to take the 
corps away as soon as possible. Under the circumstances Dr. 
Garland ordered the cadets marched away. 

On reaching the University we were ordered to get our over- 
coats, fill our haversacks with crackers from the commissary 
store as quickly as possible, and be ready to move at the com- 
mand. By two o'clock in the morning we were on the march 
toward King's Bridge, about eight miles east of Tuscaloosa. 
We crossed the bridge, tore up the floor, and ascended a hill 
covered with thick woods and placed ourselves in position to 
ward off an attack in case we should be pursued. 

Early in the day we heard the explosion of the magazines 
and saw the smoke ascending from the burning of the Univer- 
sity buildings. Mrs. Garland, by her personal efforts, saved the 
President's house, which the raiders were setting on fire, and 
Mrs. Chapman saved the Observatory. But for the heroic ef- 
forts of these ladies at their own personal risk, it is probable 



REMINISCENCES. 213 

that every building belonging to the University would have 
been swept away in a general conflagration. 

We made our breakfast on crackers and spent a dismal day 
on this, the 4th of April, 1865, During the morning Dr. Gar- 
land assembled the officers for a council of war. It was decided 
to join General Forrest in Selma, if possible. 

On the march out of town Fred DuBrutz, of Choctaw Coun- 
ty, came to me and said : ''Captain, a number of us have resolved 
to go back and make a Thermopylge of it. We want you to lead 
us. We don't like to leave this way." I answered : "Neither 
do I ; but the first duty of a soldier is to obey orders, and we are 
under orders." 

Members of the Corps Wounded. 

In the skirmishing on Main Street the following members 
of the corps were wounded : Captain J. H. Murfee, seriously in 
the ankle ; Cadet A. T. Kendrick, slightly in the forehead ; Ca- 
det W. M. King, seriously In both legs; Cadet W. R. May, 
dangerously in the breast. Captain Murfee was carried to the 
residence of Mrs. Owen; King, to the Methodist College, in 
which his sister was a student. Kendrick was able to remain 
with the corps. May was kindly cared for in the city. They 
all finally recovered. 

March to Marion — Corps Disbanded. 

About dusk in the evening of April 4 the corps was drawn 
up in line and led in prayer by Professor Toy. I heard the 
remark : "That was the best prayer I ever heard Professor Toy 
make." The prayer was a good one, as all his prayers were„ 
I suspect that the reason this prayer seemed the best lay in an 
attitude of mind more appreciative than when his other prayers 
were heard In the Rotunda, just before breakfast, with no ene- 
my near. Soon after the prayer we set out toward Selma. 

The following are some of the features of this march of 
three days: We halted at Hardy Clements's long enough to 
have dinner cooked for three hundred hungry cadets. We 
slept one night In a ginhouse and "pickroom" during a very 



214 REMINISCENCES. 

heavy rainfall. The next day we found a creek overflowing" 
the lowland for several hundred yards, through which we had 
to wade in order to get on the bridge. Notwithstanding sloppy 
roads and scanty rations, the corps marched into Marion on the 
afternoon of the third day in fine style and held a dress parade 
on the courthouse square. The patriotic citizens received us 
with great cordiality, took many of us into their homes, and 
provided comfortable quarters for all. We shall look in vain 
for a community whose generous hospitality surpasses that of 
Marion. On our arrival we learned that Selma had fallen on 
Sunday night, April 2 ; that General Forrest had cut his way 
out and had passed through Marion two days before. With 
no mails, no telegraph, no mounted couriers, we could not find 
General Forrest or any other Confederate commander. We 
could not return to the University, for it was in ashes. We 
had no commissary stores to furnish our rations. We could 
not long remain quartered on the kind people whose stock of 
provisions was growing less every day. After waiting several 
days without finding any way to relieve the urgency of the 
situation. Dr. Garland disbanded the corps with orders to as- 
semble at Auburn in thirty days. In the meantime the surren- 
der of Lee on the 9th and of Johnston on the 26th made nu- 
gatory the order to reassemble. Thus ended the career of the 
First Alabama Corps of Cadets. It fell to the lot of the writer 
to witness great enthusiasm over its origin in i860, to watch 
with absorbing interest its checkered and stormy life of five 
years, and to experience genuine sorrow at its untimely end 
amid the gloom of April, 1865. Reluctantly leaving its Alma 
Mater in ashes and its native land bathed in tears, it vanished, 
like the spirits of the heroic dead, with no stain on its honor. 
Its g-ood name will live as long as the University of Alabama 
endures. 

I believe that those three hundred young fellows would have 
eagerly attacked Croxton's whole brigade, which outnumbered 
them five to one; but the great fatherly heart of Dr. Garland 
could not suffer them to be butchered when he knew that the 
sacrifice would be useless. He was influenced by the same mo- 



REMINISCENCES. 215 

tive which impelled General Lee to surrender the remnant of 
his gallant men, who said : "We would rather die than come to 
this." We admire the heroism of the men. Their devotion 
makes us think better of humanity. We venerate the great 
souls of Dr. Garland and General Lee. Their nobility lifts our 
thoughts of human nature into kinship with the divine. 

The object of General Croxton's raid through Tuscaloosa 
was to break up the University, which the Federal authorities 
rightly thought was a source of keeping up the war spirit and 
of furnishing efficient men for the army. As soon as its de- 
struction was accomplished, he left without making an effort 
to pursue the corps of cadets. 

For some of the details in the history of these closing days 
I am indebted to Mr. J. G. Cowan, who kept a diary of this 
period. 

Starting to Join Lee's Army. 

The officers and professors who had gone with the corps 
promptly returned to Tuscaloosa. As soon as we could get a 
few clothes ready Captain D. Poynor, Captain E. A. Smith, 
Mr. P. F. Tricou, and the writer started for General Lee's 
army. Each carried a knapsack for clothes, a haversack for 
rations, a canteen for drinking water, and a gun and cartridge 
box. We expected to go on foot over all the gaps where the 
railroads had been destroyed. We were to walk to Prattville 
and spend a day or two at Dr. Smith's, then go on our way. 
We were enjoying this walk till we got within about fifteen 
miles of Prattville, when we began to meet soldiers saying that 
General Lee had surrendered. We did not believe it. We were 
like the old negro of whom General Fitzhugh Lee used to tell 
a story. When he was told that General Lee had surrendered, 
he indignantly contradicted it, saying: "That little upstart of a 
General Fitzhugh Lee may have surrendered ; but Marse Rob- 
ert — never !" After going a little farther, we met others who 
showed us their paroles. The terrible fact dawned upon us at 
last. Our steps through the remaining fifteen miles to Pratt- 
ville were not so elastic. 

Soon after we reached P'rattville a detachment of General 



2i6 REMINISCENCES. 

Wilson's army passed through. I was the only one of our 
party in Prattville the day the Federals passed. The others 
were out in the country. I put on Dr. Smith's straw hat and 
linen duster and was not molested. I suppose they did not care 
to be bothered with such a "country cracker." 

The Assassination of President Lincoln. 

During our stay in Prattville the news of President Lin- 
coln's assassination reached us and made a sad and profound 
impression. The better classes of the Southern people have 
never had any sympathy with assassination. It was feared that 
the South would fare worse under Andrew Johnson, who was 
known to be very bitter against secession. It was also a matter 
of regret that John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of Mr. Lin- 
coln, was a Southern sympathizer, which fact, it was appre- 
hended, would tend to intensify the bitter feeling already ex- 
isting against the South. Our fears were all realized. In the 
North indignation was very intense. In New York City feel- 
ing ran high, and the mob spirit was rampant. Thousands of 
citizens, mad with rage, marched through the streets with arms 
and torches, vowing to wreak vengeance on any man known to 
be a Southern sympathizer. Through Wall Street the mob 
surged, crying for vengeance and thirsting for blood. James 
A. Garfield, not then thirty-four years old, but a well-known 
figure, a member of Congress, and ex-soldier, who had resigned 
from the army after having been promoted to the rank of 
major general of volunteers for gallant services at Chickamau- 
ga, appeared on the porch of a hotel and waved his hand to the 
mob to attract attention. Supposing that a bulletin was about 
to be read, it grew silent. Then Garfield delivered this, one of 
the shortest and most eloquent orations of which there is any 
history : 

Fellow Citizens: Clouds and darkness are round about him. His pa- 
vilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Justice and judgment 
are the habitation of his throne, and truth shall go before his face. Fellow 
citizens, God reigns, and the government at Washington still lives. 



REMINISCENCES. 217 

The tumult was silenced, the mob melted away, and quiet 
and order were restored. The short speech inspired those who 
heard it with hope and confidence and drove from their minds 
the frenzy of passion and the lust of vengeance. Sixteen years 
later President Garfield was laid low by the bullet of Charles 
J. Guiteau, a crazed assassin. After many weeks of suffering, 
he passed to his long account, sincerely mourned by the South 
as well as by the North. 

After being kindly entertained by Dr. Smith and his gener- 
ous family for two or three weeks, I returned to Tuscaloosa 
and spent several weeks with friends in that hospitable com- 
munity. Among these I wish to mention Mrs. T. P. Lewis. 
While I enjoyed the kindness of my friends, I could not re- 
main longer dependent on any one. Indeed, my remaining as 
long as I did was a stern^necessity. I had not a decent suit of 
clothes. I had no money, and, what was worse, no one else had 
any. There were no mails. There were no means of public 
conveyance and little private travel, for all the horses had been 
taken by one army or the other. I could not go anywhere. I 
could not hear from anywhere. I would have walked if I 
had known where to find a place that would afford me a living 
for any honorable service that I could render. But business 
was paralyzed everywhere. At last I was offered a seat in 
Mr. Charles Walker's carriage as far as Faunsdale. Thence I 
went on the railroad to Demopolls. There I had a friend, J. 
F. Griffin, who had been one of my roommates in college. He 
had sold some cotton and had some money in "greenbacks." 
He lent me fifteen dollars. With this I went on a boat to 
Jackson, Alabama, the home of my fiancee. Miss F. A. Taylor, 
to make the acquaintance of her family. 

Perhaps this is as appropriate a place as any other to mention 
some of the losses that Alabama sustained in consequence of 
the war. To say nothing of the destruction of her University 
buildings and millions of dollars' worth of private property, 
the suspension of business, and the depreciation of values, it 
has been estimated that she sent 120,000 soldiers into the 
field out of a white population of 526,271. Of these, it is 



2i8 REMINISCENCES. 

believed that 35,000 lost their lives, besides many more who 
died soon after the war from wounds and diseases contracted 
in the army, making not less than one-third of all those who 
enlisted. Colonel W. H. Fowler, State Superintendent of 
Army Records, made this report in December, 1865 : "I assert 
with confidence that Alabama sent more troops into the service 
than any other State of the South in proportion to population 
and that her loss was heavier than that of any other." 

Back to Choctaw County — The School at Mount 

Sterling. 

After spending a few days at Jackson, I went on a boat to 
Tuscahoma, in Choctaw County, and thence out four miles to 
Mount Sterling, where I was solicited to take the boys' school. 
This had been taught in the early fifties by Mr. George F. Mel- 
len, as it was later, from 1869- 1880, by Dr. S. S. Mellen, two 
of my former teachers, but was now without a teacher. In vis- 
iting the prospective patrons of the school I spent the night with 
Professor Ben E. DuBose, who had once taught this school. 
He made the statement that he would dread to undertake the 
management of the boys' school in Mount Sterling because the 
boys were so bad. Of course this made me feel that I had a 
hard job on my hands. But I had been assistant in the school 
at Pierce's Springs and also In the University, and I had been 
a Confederate soldier and was somewhat accustomed to hard 
jobs. I resolved to give the best service in my power. About 
the last of August I opened my school, which was soon filled 
up with forty pupils, the limit I had set. I was surprised and 
pleased at the ease with which I managed those boys. I think 
there were three reasons for my success : 

I. I put my best service into the school. I came near break- 
ing myself down with the work of the year. So much worn 
was I that I found it necessary in April to take a short vaca- 
tion. During this time I went to Mobile, consulted Dr. J. C. 
Nott about my health, bought some good clothes, and called 
by Jackson to pay my respects to the Taylors, though Miss 
Fredonia, the one in whom I was most interested, was absent 



REMINISCENCES. 219 

in Woodville, Mississippi, teaching in the family of a Mr. 
Simrall. Under Dr. Nott's prescription my health improved. 
One of his directions was to desist from smoking. 

2. The second reason of my success was that I had as pupils 
three young men who had been in the Confederate army : two 
brothers, Maybanks DuBose and John Wesley DuBose, and 
Charles B. DuBose, a cousin of theirs. The first two had been 
pupils of mine while I was the assistant at Pierce's Springs; 
the other was a young man preparing for the ministry. These 
young men set a fine example and aided in creating a loyal 
spirit in the school. Charles B. DuBose joined the Alabama 
Conference the next year and was a faithful preacher for some 
years, till his life of usefulness was cut short by yellow fever. 
He had charge of one of the Churches in Pensacola when the 
epidemic came. He sent his family away, bat refused to leave 
his afflicted people, most of whom were obliged to remain in 
the city. He and the Catholic priest were the only pastors left 
to minister to the sick and to bury the dead. Mr. DuBose, who 
had been a brave soldier, now showed the same heroic spirit in 
the pestilence walking in darkness that he had shown in the 
destruction caused by shot and shell on the battle field. He 
deliberately chose to stay at his post of duty till he went down 
to death. He was buried on the shore of Pensacola Bay, whose 
waves will sing his requiem till the morning of the resurrection. 

3. The third reason for my success at Mount Sterling was 
the friendly influence of Miss O. C. DuBose, who was principal 
of the girls' school in the village. She was a strong character 
and was a stanch friend when she was a friend. She exercised 
her influence in favor of my school. I make this statement as 
a tribute to her memory. 

In succeeding years I educated one of Maybanks DuBose's 
daughters and two of Charlie DuBose's. So the threads of our 
influence are woven into the warp of each other's lives. 

In the summer and fall of 1865 there was great confusion 
growing out of the movement of the cotton that had been 
stored away during the war. Some of it had been sold to the 
Confederate government and paid for in Confederate bonds. 



220 REMINISCENCES. 

Some had been sold to commission merchants in Mobile. Some 
was still held by the farmers who produced it. Except what had 
been shipped to Europe during the early years of the war, it was 
all stored away under ginhouses and sheds on the plantations. 

After the surrender, agents of the Federal government 
scoured the country in search of Confederate cotton, which 
they claimed was the property of the United States by right 
of conquest. The merchants were eager to get possession of 
what they had bought. The parties who still held their cotton 
were anxious to prevent it from being captured and carried off 
in the general scramble. Cotton was commanding five hun- 
dred dollars a bale and was the only thing in the whole country 
that would bring money. 

The Federal agents were not very particular what cotton 
they seized. They seemed to think that it all belonged to the 
United States. The farmers claimed that the Confederate 
government had never made its bonds good and that they had, 
therefore, never been paid for their cotton. Some thought that 
they had a right to it. 

The Federal agents could protect their claims with soldiers. 
The merchants and farmers had to protect their cotton with 
private guards as best they could. Five dollars a night was the 
price paid for guards. 

There was great activity everywhere. Wagons were moving 
on all the roads and sometimes through the woods by day and 
often by night, hauling cotton to the river. There was a gen- 
eral rampage, and occasional killings occurred. I attended the 
funeral of a young man who was killed while driving a wagon- 
load of cotton to the boat landing. 

Those who had cotton of their own sold it and bought some 
new clothes. Many who had none took some ("Confederate 
cotton" they called it) and followed the fashion. Some people 
seemed to have lost their discrimination between what was 
theirs and what was not. One preacher advocated "taking 
Confederate cotton." J. W. Rush, the presiding elder, con- 
demned it from the pulpit in the most emphatic terms. Who- 
ever might be the rightful owners of the cotton, I knew that I 



REMINISCENCES. 221 

was not. I determined to have nothing to do with it. I con- 
tinued to wear my old dingy Confederate uniform till I could, 
by teaching, make the money to procure a better wardrobe. 

The Oath of Allegiance. 

After the surrender I was not molested by the officers of the 
United States government. In November, 1865, I went volun- 
tarily to Lieutenant Schrann, the officer in charge of Choctaw 
County, and took the oath of allegiance to the United States. 
I took this oath in good faith and have always considered it as 
binding as if nothing had happened from January 11, 1861, to 
November, 1865. 

When Alabama seceded, I believed that she was the only 
body politic to which I owed allegiance. When the Confeder- 
acy was formed and Alabama became a part of it, my allegi- 
ance went to that government also. But when Alabama had, 
by the terms of the surrender, accepted these results of the 
war — namely, that the Confederacy was extinct, that secession 
was dead — and when she had by vote declared her purpose to 
remain in the Union, I considered that I was under obligation 
to declare my allegiance to the government of the United 
States, if I intended to live under it and claim its protection. 
In this change of the point of sovereignty I neither sacrificed 
the integrity of my manhood nor violated my oath of alle- 
giance. 

The United States has no more loyal citizens than the old 
Confederate soldiers who remained true to their cause till it 
was lost, who knew how to die for principle, but who did not 
know how to compromise the truth as they had always held it. 
Let no old Confederate offer any suppliant apology for what 
he did in defending his native land. Let him rather adopt the 
sentiment expressed by Maurice Thompson in an address to 
the Grand Army of the Republic : 

"I was a Rebel, if you please, 

A reckless fighter to the last; 
Nor do I fall upon my knees 
And ask forgiveness for the past. 



222 REMINISCENCES. 

A traitor? I a traitor? No! 

I was a patriot to the core; 
The South was mine, I love her so, 

I gave her all — I could no more." 

Dr. J. W. Rush. 

During this year of 1865-66 at Mount Sterling I became 
acquainted with Rev. J. W. Rush, who was presiding elder of 
what, I believe, was then called the Suggsville District, which 
embraced two appointments west of the Tombigbee River. 
Between these two appointments he used to stay at the home 
of Mrs. Manning, with whom I boarded. I found him an in- 
teresting personality, whose visits were an inspiration at a time 
when I had very little entertaining companionship outside of 
my books. This acquaintance with Mr. Rush was the begin- 
ning of a friendship which grew in strength and affection to 
the end of his life and still lives even while I linger on these 
mortal shores. 

Dr. Holmes said that if you would start a person in life un- 
der the best conditions you should go back two hundred years 
and train his ancestors, in order to get blood of the purest strain 
and spirit of the finest tone, so far-reaching and dominating is 
the law of heredity. 

John Wesley Rush was fortunate in his inheritance. His 
father, Charles George Rush, came of virile German stock 
trained in the doctrines of Lutheran independence. Young 
Rush was brought up in the Lutheran Church, in which he was 
confirmed in his early manhood. After coming to Alabama, in 
18 1 8, he joined the Methodist Church, which he loyally sup- 
ported with his time, his means, and his prayers. He was 
noted for his strong character, sound sense, great industry, and 
earnest piety. Such was his piety that he was content to re- 
main in the world and contribute to its betterment, or he was 
ready to depart and be forever with the Lord. The former 
state of mind was shown by the life he lived. The latter was 
demonstrated by his conduct on November 13, 1833, when he 
was awakened by the loud screams of people crying out : "The 



REMINISCENCES. 223 

day of judgment has come!" Mr. Rush dressed in haste and 
went out to behold the heavens all ablaze with countless balls of 
fire falling to the earth. He accepted the belief of the others 
that this marvelous display was the opening scene of the last 
great day. He had years before committed his life to God and, 
like John Wesley, was ready for this sublime event. With joy- 
ful confidence he expected to see Christ "coming in power and 
great glory." But the hours passed, the day dawned, the stars 
melted away, and the sun rose as usual. The world was still 
going on. Mr. Rush was disappointed. Though his faith in 
Christ was tested on a false issue, it was, nevertheless, really 
tested. From that night forth he was not afraid of the advent 
of death. His faith was like that of Enoch and Elijah. 

In 1836 he moved from Montgomery County to Macon and 
bought a plantation two and a half miles south of Tuskegee. 
Here he lived till 1858, when he went to heaven, not through 
the magnificent display of falling stars, but through the natural 
abatement of his physical powers. 

His character and manner of life were remembered by the 
older people in the community when I moved to Tuskegee, in 
1876. I have heard that he was so punctual in attending all 
Church services, night and day, that the horse which he drove 
would of its own accord leave the street at the right place, 
turn to the church (then on a side street), go up to the hitch- 
ing post, turn the buggy wheel to the right position for the 
occupants to alight, and then stand without being hitched till 
his master returned. 

With his habits of industry, frugality, and good judgment, 
Mr. Rush prospered in business and used his money on church- 
es, chapels, schoolhouses, missions, orphans, and strangers. 
Every good cause appealed to him. As an indication of his 
concern for his slaves, he built a neat chapel for their conveni- 
ence and provided religious services, which he required them 
and the overseer all to attend dressed in their best clothes. So 
carefully did he look after their morals that gross immoralities 
were rarely ever known among them. 

His wife was filled with the same pious and generous spirit. 



224 REMINISCENCES. 

She abounded in all phases of liberality. Her money was only 
a means to a higher end. She laid up her treasures in heaven. 
As an indication of the direction in which the current of her 
thoughts flowed, she, like Hannah of old, dedicated her son to 
the ministry before he was born. Through his infancy, child- 
hood, and youth her faith never failed, even while he was going 
through the period of boyish waywardness. 

She lived to see him soundly converted, called to the minis- 
try, graduated from Emory College, and received into the 
Conference. On returning from church on one occasion when 
he had occupied the pulpit, she informed him for the first time 
that she had dedicated him to the ministry even before his 
birth. This revelation startled him, as he realized that he had 
been in the hands of the Lord from the beginning. 

Like many other educated young men of that time, he was 
appointed to preach to the negroes. His ministry to them he 
always considered among his most fruitful labors. At the end 
of this pastorate he preached his farewell sermon and was on 
the point of dismissing the congregation when the leaders 
beckoned him to wait while they took up a collection. When 
he saw their hard-earned contributions poured out on the table 
as a thank offering to him, he was so moved with sympathy 
and love for them that he broke down in tears. This is a speci- 
men of the feelings that often existed between the races before 
the war. 

Dr. Rush, during a long and faithful ministry, filled nearly 
every prominent appointment in the Alabama Conference. 

Such was the parentage and such was the career of Dr. John 
Wesley Rush, who was one of my most intimate friends for 
many years. He is mentioned several times in these memoirs. 
I had the honor of educating three of his daughters and one of 
his sons, who are perpetuating his fine qualities. 

During my year at Mount Sterling I was still expecting to 
study law, but my work was so heavy that I had no time nor 
strength to devote to the study of law. I had classes in read- 
ing, grammar, rhetoric, and composition, Latin through Caesar, 
Vergil, and Horace, Greek through Xenophon and Homer, in 



REMINISCENCES. 225 

mathematics through arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigo- 
nometry, and a class in French. The amount and variety of 
this work seem incredible; but I managed to do it to the sat- 
isfaction of the patrons. 

Though not having time to devote to the study of law, I 
wrote to my friend. Colonel D. S. Troy, of Montgomery, and 
made arrangements to go into his law ojffice the ensuing fall. 
He had been my stanch friend all through our war experiences 
and was now ready to aid me in my studies and give me some 
clerical work while I was getting ready to go into the practice. 

The trustees of the Mount Sterling Academy expressed 
themselves as well pleased. Mr, William D. Gaines, the Chair- 
man of the Board, was very complimentary and urged me to 
remain ; but, having made up my mind to go to Montgomery, 
I closed my school the first week in July, 1866. 

As soon as I could wind up my business I went to see my 
friend Colonel Yates. After a hot day's ride of thirty miles, 
I reached his house in the afternoon and found him sick. Aft- 
er the usual salutations, I informed him with some degree of 
pride that I was ready to pay him what I owed him; that I 
wished to pay interest on the debt ; and that, as I had to pay 
in "greenbacks," I would pay the difference in the value of 
the greenbacks and the gold which he loaned me six years be- 
fore. In a serious tone he said : "You don't owe me anything." 
I answered : "Yes, I do, and you have my notes for three hun- 
dred dollars." His answer was : "I never intended to make 
you pay those notes. I just took them to make you work." 
He grew desperately sick and died three days later. Before 
he became unconscious he said: "I am so glad that you came 
to be with me in my last hours." Thus passed away a generous 
friend who made it possible for me to get a collegiate educa- 
tion. If the value of my life work has been increased, this has 
been due to the liberality of Colonel Alfred C. Yates. Out of 
the money I had expected to pay him I furnished Mrs. Yates 
what she needed for his funeral expenses. 

After the burial of my friend, I went to New Orleans to 
meet Miss Taylor on her return from Mississippi. There was 
15 



226 REMINISCENCES. 

no railroad between Mobile and New Orleans in 1866. The 
travel was done on a line of elegant steamers plying between 
these two cities. During my stay in New Orleans I was hos- 
pitably entertained in the home of Mrs. W. M. Weibling, an 
aunt of Miss Taylor's. 

On our arrival in Jackson I met a Mr. W. B. Hill, of Sum- 
merfield, who had been looking for me for some time. He 
informed me that he and I had been elected co-principals of 
Centenary Male Institute ; that he had been sent to find me and 
solicit my acceptance of the position, which he thought would 
pay us three thousand dollars apiece ; and that Rev. J. W. Rush 
and Dr. J. Hamilton were members of the Board of Trustees 
and had recommended me, though a stranger to all the other 
members of the Board. I was reluctant to give up my plan of 
going to Montgomery; but this seemed to be so flattering an 
offer, unsolicited, that I thought it might be wise to make a lit- 
tle more money before embarking in a profession which I knew 
did not generally pay very well in the beginning. So I ac- 
cepted the place for one year without yet abandoning my pur- 
pose of going into law. 

Marriage to Miss Fredonia A. Taylor. 

Now came up the question whether Miss Taylor and I should 
be married before I went to Summerfield or whether we should 
postpone the matter indefinitely. It was a serious question, the 
decision of which, I believe, changed the whole course of my 
life. We did what our feelings prompted and what the out- 
look seemed to justify. We were married on September 23, 
1866, by Dr. Jefferson Hamilton, of Mobile, and took a boat 
for Demopolis immediately after the ceremony. From there 
we went by rail to Selma and thence to Summerfield by car- 
riage. 

The Taylor Family. 

The following reference to the Taylor family is taken from 
West's "History of Methodism in Alabama" : 

Mrs. A. C. Taylor, the first avowed friend and active benefactor of 
Methodism at the town of Jackson, Alabama, lived many years and ren- 



REMINISCENCES. 227 

dered great service to the cause espoused ; and through all the years of her 
Christian pilgrimage she entertained pious sentiments and the blissful antic- 
ipation that she would enter into the palace of the King Eternal. Some- 
time after Mrs. Taylor joined the Church her husband, Mr. Walter Tay- 
lor, attached himself to the same Church and was liberal in his support of 
the institutions thereof, Mr. Walter Taylor and Mrs. A. C. Taylor had 
eight children, who grew to maturity and became Methqdists. The family 
has been noted for intelligence and refinement. 

Mr. Taylor was a man of superior intellect. He was a 
graduate of Augusta College, Kentucky, under the presidency 
of Dr. H. B. Bascom, in the class of 1838, with first honors. 
He was the valedictorian of the class. The degree of A.M. was 
conferred on him the same year. 

At the age of twenty-four he was married to Miss Amanda 
Caroline Lankford at her home, in Coffeeville, Alabama, and 
brought his bride immediately to the beautiful home he had 
prepared for her in Jackson, Alabama. 

While Mr. Taylor's native ability and educational advan- 
tages fitted him for high positions in public life, he preferred 
merchandising in his native town and making a lovely home 
for his family, in which he found his chief pleasure. He was 
always the high-toned gentleman, courteous and considerate of 
others. In his home he treated his wife and daughters with 
the same deference that he invariably showed to other women. 
He did not accumulate wealth, because he could never say 
''No" to any call upon his generosity nor turn a deaf ear to- 
ward any one asking his aid. Though not demonstrative in 
his religious profession, his motto was, "Do unto others as 
you would have them do unto you." He lived his religion in 
his daily life. 

In the first years of their married life there was no church 
m Jackson. Mr. Taylor donated a church building, furnished 
it with a pulpit and seats, and paid for the services of a preach- 
er, while his wife was the only Methodist in town. She went 
among the people, encouraged them to attend the services, and 
thus laid the foundation for Methodism in Jackson. Some- 
time later Mr. Taylor joined the Church. 

His generosity abounded in other ways. When there was 



228 REMINISCENCES. 

no school in the community, he maintained a private school in 
his home, to which he invited his neighbors to send their chil- 
dren. In addition to the burden of rearing a large family, he 
and his wife at different times during their lives took into 
their hearts and home thirteen other children, some partly 
orphaned, others entirely so. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were born one son and ten daugh- 
ters. The son and seven daughters grew to maturity. The 
son, Walter Taylor, Jr., was my pupil while I was in charge 
of the male school in Summerfield. He was one of the most 
brilliant young men I ever taught. Of the daughters who 
reached maturity, Fredonia Alethea was remarkable for her 
early interest in religion, joining the Methodist Church at the 
age of nine ; for her unswerving adherence to the truth under 
all circumstances; and for her high mental endowments and 
her eagerness to acquire knowledge. She took the first honors 
in the Tuscaloosa Female College and was the valedictorian of 
her class. She excelled in literature, art, and music. But, 
above all her accomplishments, she was a true woman, a de- 
voted wife and mother, and a genuine Christian, as appeared 
in the final test. 

Florence, the second daughter, was educated in the Tuskegee 
Female College. Aurulia, the third daughter, attended a girls' 
school in Auburn. Carrie, the seventh daughter, attended col- 
lege in Centenary Female College during the presidency of 
Professor W. J. Vaughn. During their girlhood these were 
all regular attendants in the Sunday school, either as pupils or 
teachers, and all united with the Methodist Church. 

I was not so well acquainted with Mr. Taylor as I was with 
Mrs. Taylor. I was only an occasional visitor in his home; 
and when I was a visitor in his family, he was nearly always 
engaged in his business. I saw much of Mrs. Taylor in her 
own house ; besides, she spent some time In my family on four 
different occasions. She was a woman of the highest ideals, 
of great force of character, and withal of great affability and 
tender sympathy. Her end was the fit sequel of such a life. 
I called to see her a short time before her death. She knew 



REMINISCENCES. 22g 

that her work was done. She was waiting for her translation. 
Her husband and seven of her children had passed over the 
mysterious stream that divides the heavenly land from ours. 
She felt some nervousness about crossing the river, but her 
heart was with her Lord and the company on the other shore. 
Noble woman! She had fought a good fight. She had kept 
the faith. Henceforth she will wear a crown of righteousness 
promised to those who hold fast the profession of their faith 
unto the end. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Summerfield — Centenary Institute — Dr. A. H. Mitchell and Mrs. Fidelia 
(Douglas) Mitchell— Mr. and Mrs. B. I. Harrison— Rev. and Mrs. 
Greenberry Garrett— Dr. John S. Moore— Mrs. S. L. W. Daniel— Dr. S. 
W. Vaughan. 

AS Summerfield was my home for eight years, during which 
I had a variety of experiences, some of the most pleasant 
and some of the most sorrowful of my life, and as I here 
formed very close and cordial relations with some of the noted 
people of that day, I consider it proper to give a brief account 
of the origin and characteristics of the place. 

It was originally called Valley Creek and was incorporated 
as a school in 1829. When the centenary of Methodism was 
celebrated, in 1839, there was great activity in Methodist cir- 
cles in raising money for the foundation of schools. As Val- 
ley Creek was centrally located, it was thought to be the best 
place for a college in Middle Alabama. There were no rail- 
roads and no large centers of population. Satisfied with con- 
ditions as they then were and not dreaming of the astounding 
changes that were to come in less than three-quarters of a 
century, the citizenry imagined that this place might in course 
of time become the capital of the State. But let us not smile 
at their simple faith, for they had faith that resulted in works. 
They did the best thing they knew for their generation. As 
an outcome of the centenary movement Valley Creek was, in 
1842, chartered as Centenary Institute and started as an insti- 
tution of higher learning. In 1843 Dr. A. H. Mitchell was 
called from Emory College to the presidency. In 1845 ^^e 
name of the place was changed from Valley Creek to Summer- 
field, in honor of the eloquent preacher, John Summerfield. 

During the later forties and the fifties, and even into the 
early sixties, this school became the most noted institution 
in all Central Alabama. Much of the time from 1845 to 
1865 there were as many as five hundred students in attend- 
ance. The work done was not of the highest grade according 

(230) 



REMINISCENCES. 2^1 

to the modern standards, but it was of a kind that made good 
men and good women. From the evidences they left behind 
them, as large a portion of them served their generation effi- 
ciently while they lived and then went to the kingdom of God 
above as of any generation that has ever lived in Alabama. 

One striking feature of Centenary Institute was its religious 
tone. So far as I can learn, it was the most positive spiritual 
influence that has ever been exerted in education in this State, 
unless that in old LaGrange College may have been its equal. 
I had been hearing of Summei"field for many years. It was 
as a city set on a hill. I believe that my decision to go there 
when I did was somewhat quickened by a wish that I might 
secure some spiritual benefit by breathing its religious atmos- 
phere. 

The Institute as organized under Dr. Mitchell consisted of 
two separate departments, Centenary Female College and Cen- 
tenary Male Institute. It was to the latter that I was called. 
Dr. R. K. Hargrove (afterwards Bishop) had been in charge 
of the Female College the previous year. Professor W. J. 
Vaughn was just coming in to take charge of it when I entered 
the male school, in 1866. 

Mr. Hill and I opened with about seventy-five boys and ran 
on smoothly till sometime in the early spring, when one of 
our boys stabbed another in a manner that could not be passed 
over lightly. I was in favor of dismissing the offender; but 
Mr. Hill, being Influenced by a friend of the family of the 
offender, was in favor of letting the offense pass with only a 
reprimand. We finally compromised on a week's suspension 
and ran to the close of the session. While Mr. Hill and I 
remained friends to the day of his death, I resolved never 
again to go Into partnership with any one In the management 
of a school. I had been a soldier and knew how to obey or- 
ders and did not mind doing so; but when I had to take the 
responsibility of management, or even half of it, I wanted a 
free hand to do what I deemed right and proper. I offered to 
resign in his favor ; but he declined to accept this offer and took 
a school In Dayton, Alabama. 



232 REMINISCENCES. 

From the close of that year, 1866-67, 1 have always assumed 
the responsibility of managing my school without interference 
from teachers or trustees. I have sometimes asked advice of 
my teachers, but have always assumed the entire responsibility 
in matters of government. In some cases I found it necessary 
to dismiss pupils, which I always did with the least possible 
publicity. In several cases I felt obliged to require the resig- 
nation of teachers. I cannot recall a single case of unpleasant 
discipline over which I have any regret. 

On September 15, 1867, in Jackson, Alabama, John Taylor 
Massey, my oldest son, was born. He was baptized by Dr. 
A. H. Mitchell. 

The session of 1867-68 was a hard one, owing to the fact 
that there was a failure in the crops. The patronage was 
small and collections poor, but the success with the pupils I 
had was very gratifying. There was a growing pleasure in 
my work, notwithstanding the discouraging feature of limited 
financial remuneration. I am convinced that the teacher who 
does not do his best in spite of poor pay has missed his calling; 
but the fact that he does his best on poor pay is the strongest 
moral appeal that can be made in favor of his being paid a 
decent living. 

The session of 1868-69 was more prosperous financially, 
and I was so much absorbed in my work that the thought of 
ever going into the practice of law was beginning to fade out 
of my mind. Besides, my family was increasing, and the in- 
expediency of making a change in my profession was becoming 
apparent. The fact that I could make a living by teaching and 
the growing evidence that I was exerting considerable influ- 
ence over the minds and characters of my pupils gradually 
brought me to the settled conviction that this was my calling 
— a calling whose prime object is the building up of humanity, 
a calling upon which I could claim the blessing of God. Since 
1869 I have never thought seriously of changing my vocation. 

On September 29, 1869, my second son, Louis Vaughn Mas- 
sey, was born In Summerfield, Alabama. He was baptized by 
Rev. M. E. Butt. After the death of his brother Johnnie, he 



REMINISCENCES. 233 

was my almost constant companion for the next two years. He 
was an interesting boy of fine capacity, to whom I endeavored 
to give the best educational advantages. Through his good 
name and that of his son, John Castleman Massey, I hope that 
our family name will be worthily perpetuated, I am more 
anxious that my children shall make and maintain worthy 
characters than that they shall have a good time or achieve 
worldly success. They will never know the deep solicitude I 
feel for their welfare unless they gain some conception of it 
through their own children. 

I had now, in the third year of my residence, become ac- 
quainted with the people. In a small place of not more than 
two or three hundred the people see one another in all phases 
more clearly than they do in large cities or in sparsely settled 
neighborhoods. Besides, there was a closer community of in- 
terests and sentiments than usual. The Johnston family, who 
were Presbyterians, were the only family I recall who were not 
members of the Methodist Church. Although class meetings 
had been abolished as a test of membership by the General 
Conference of 1866, still the use of class meetings had not 
become obsolete in Summerfield. So the people who attended 
these meetings had, in addition to the fruits they bore in their 
conduct, opportunity to become acquainted with the inner life 
of their neighbors. There were several religious services each 
week which a considerable number of the people attended, be- 
sides one or two "protracted meetings" each year. Now, while 
my observation convinced me that all this did not make saints 
of some of the people, it did develop a high type of piety in 
some others and did give an opportunity for becoming inti- 
mately acquainted. It may be interesting and instructive to 
preserve the memory of some of these people as I knew them 
a half century ago. 

Dr. a. H, Mitchell and Mrs, Fidelia Mitchell. 

Dr, Archelaus H, Mitchell was the king of Summerfield. 
He was a native of Georgia, born in 1807; was a graduate of 
Franklin College (University of Georgia) ; was in college with 



234 REMINISCENCES. 

Bishop Pierce, Robert Toombs, and Alexander H. Stephens; 
had taught Bishop McTyeire and Dr. W. A. McCarty in 
Cokesbury, South Carohna; and was teaching in Emory Col- 
lege when he was called to Centenary Institute in 1843. Some- 
time later the University of Alabama conferred upon him the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity, in recognition of his ability and 
his work in education. He had begun his education late in his 
youth and could hardly be called a very accurate scholar; but 
his was a strong, positive personality coupled with traits that 
some people called little. Soon after I went to Summerfield 
my wife and I were invited to attend the celebration of his 
birthday, October 15. On this day he closed his fifty-ninth 
and entered upon his sixtieth year. This was the beginning of 
my intimate acquaintance with him and his wife, for whom I 
always entertained an affectionate regard. 

In physique he was tall, bony, and broad-shouldered, slightly 
bow-legged and big-footed, with a large square head, from 
which the hair stood up straight in front, light blue eyes, and 
a tremendous Roman nose, which hooked over and almost 
touched his chin. He had a distinct, energetic enunciation 
that made him, not eloquent, but impressive. He was not a 
good conversationalist. He was not a patient listener. He 
was too apt to inject his laconic remarks that did not always 
contribute to the easy flow of the conversation. But with all 
his peculiarities he was an old Roman in integrity. In his 
bosom beat as warm and sympathetic a heart as could be found 
in many who claimed to be capable of more generous senti- 
ments. He was not constituted to be a gentleman of leisure. 
There was no avenue for waste in his composition. He lost 
no time in idleness. He squandered no energy in useless pur- 
suits. He spent no money on nonessentials. His economy in 
money matters provoked the criticism of free livers, yet his 
generosity put his critics to shame when it came to providing 
for the needy and pushing forward useful enterprises in the 
world. He was not a wit, but there was something in the tones 
of his voice and the turns of his thoughts that awakened emo- 
tions of the ludicrous without any such intention on his part. 



REMINISCENCES. 235 

As stated above, his name was Archelaus H. Mitchell. He 
pronounced the name Arch'y-lus, accenting the first syllable 
instead of the third. At a General Conference of which he 
was a member and Dr. Thomas O. Summers was the Secre- 
tary, Dr. Summers, in calling the roll, called out: "Archelaus 
H. Mitchell." Dr. Mitchell said : "Arch'y-lus, if you please." 
Dr. Summers, with his strict notions of classic pronunciation, 
called again : "Archelaus H. Mitchell." Dr. Mitchell answered 
the second time, "Arch'y-lus." Dr. Summers called the third 
time: "Archelaus H. Mitchell." Dr. Mitchell said: "Humph! 
Were you at the christening?" Dr. Mitchell, being five years 
the senior, made the repartee more pointed. 

He was a member of a militia company during the last days 
of the war, such a company as I commanded at Pollard. His 
company was sent to aid in the defense of Selma and was in 
the city when it was captured. Before it was taken there was 
some shooting on both sides. The Doctor took aim at a Fed- 
eral soldier and pulled the trigger, saying : "May the Lord have 
mercy on his soul !" When he was asked years afterwards 
whether this story was true or not, he said it was. When 
asked whether he killed any one, he said : "I don't know ; but I 
sent three bullets as straight as I could." When the city fell 
into the hands of the Federals, the Doctor took refuge under 
some doorsteps on the side of the street along which the sol- 
diers were gathering up prisoners. A man of the bayonet 
spied him and ordered him to come out. As the old man 
crawled out and straightened up his huge grizzly form, tow- 
ering away above that of his captor, the soldier called to his 
comrades in a loud voice : "Run here quick, boys. Here is the 
daddy of all the Johnny Rebs." 

His form was so angular and ungraceful and his voice so 
hard and dry that one would have thought him devoid of pathos, 
yet as pathetic a thing as I ever heard from any man I heard 
from him. Dr. Mitchell, Rev. Greenberry Garrett, and Dr. 
Jefferson Hamilton had been bosom friends for many years. 
They had stood shoulder to shoulder and fought the battles of 
the Conference before the world. They had been bound to- 



236 REMINISCENCES. 

gether in a sacred trio in their private homes. Mr. Garrett 
and Dr. Hamilton died some years before Dr. Mitchell. He 
was preaching a sermon in which he alluded to their departure. 
He must have felt as John Wesley did in the last years of his 
life while trying to read his brother Charles's ''Wrestling 
Jacob" : 

"Come, O thou traveler unknown, 

Whom still I hold, but cannot see; 
My company before me is gone, 
And I am left alone with thee." 

When he came to the line, "My company before me is gone," 
Mr. Wesley's voice was hushed in tears. So Dr. Mitchell's 
voice grew soft and tremulous as he referred to the going of 
his companions and said : "I feel like a solitary old pine stand- 
ing bare and limbless, from which all of its companions have 
been cut down." His tall, rugged stature looked so much like 
a solitary old pine standing out against the sky that this com- 
parison expressing his loneliness made a pathetic scene that I 
have rarely witnessed. 

His religious experience was not a striking one, but was, I 
believe, not an uncommon one. He did not know the time 
when he was converted. He only knew that he had committed 
his life to God in Christ and that he was trying to live as be- 
came a Christian. I have sometimes thought that it was a 
good thing to have such a steadying balance wheel as his ex- 
perience during the revivals in order to keep religion from 
running off wholly into excitement. 

He said that he grew up in a family noted for strict integ- 
rity, but in which there was no public recognition of religion. 
He took his father into the Church after he became a minister 
of the gospel. 

Dr. W. P. Hurt, pastor of Church Street Church, Selma, 
went out to Summerfield to see Dr. Mitchell a short time be- 
fore his death. He was over ninety and in much feebleness. 
After some conversation, Dr. Hurt said: "You have had a long 
life and a varied experience. Doctor. You know that in the 
course of nature you cannot expect to remain here much Ion- 



REMINISCENCES. 237 

ger. How do you feel at the prospect of death ?" He raised his 
emaciated frame up on his elbow, looked his friend straight in 
the face, and said : "To tell you the truth, Brother Hurt, I 
have never been able to contemplate death with much enthusi- 
asm." He did not need dying grace before death; but two 
weeks later, when his time came to meet "the king of terrors," 
he passed away in great peace. Dying grace was given for the 
dying hour on October 3, 1903, he lacking only twelve days of 
being ninety-six years of age. 

Mrs. Fidelia Douglas Mitchell was a native of Massachu- 
setts. She had come South as a teacher when many of our 
best teachers came from the North. She was employed as a 
teacher in the College during the life of the first Mrs. Mitchell 
and sometime later was married to Dr. Mitchell. She was a 
woman of rare common sense, deep piety, and large public 
spirit. She entered into all the social life of the young people 
as one of them and was equally ready to share the sorrows of 
the afflicted and to administer comfort to the disconsolate. 
She had the nimble faculty of adapting herself to every phase 
of human experience and yet of remaining through it all the 
same unwavering pointer to the Star of Bethlehem. She was 
as nearly Pauline in her feeling as any one I have ever known 
in becoming "all things to all men," that she might win some. 

She was a "Yankee" in her economy. While her hospitality 
was as generous and enjoyable as that of any of her more 
lavish Southern neighbors, nothing went to waste about her 
house. I was many times entertained at her table when at the 
beginning of the meal there was nothing in sight. Soon some 
article of food would be brought on without any apology. By 
the time we had eaten this, from a little stove in the corner of 
the dining room she would have something else handed, till an 
ample meal had been served without waste and without osten- 
tation. All the time she was making us feel free and easy — 
a great contrast to some elaborate dinners I have seen in which 
hostess and guests aud servants were all on thorns lest some- 
thing improper should be done. 

She was a great help to me in some of the sorrows I was 



238 REMINISCENCES. 

called to pass through. After her death Dr. Mitchell said to 
me : "I have buried two wives. The first was the most beau- 
tiful woman I ever knew; the second was the best one I ever 
saw." 

Mr. and Mrs. B. I. Harrison. 

Mr. B. I. Harrison came to Valley Creek (Summerfield) in 
1832 and was a trustee of the schools for many years. He 
was a native of South Carolina and a graduate of the South 
Carolina College (University of South Carolina). He told 
me that Dr. Thomas Cooper, a man of great versatility of 
talents and prodigious learning, who was President of the 
College from 1820 to 1834, had "ruined a whole generation 
of young men by his skeptical teaching." Dr. Cooper must 
have been an extremist, as he had, before coming to South 
Carolina, been fined and imprisoned by the courts in Pennsyl- 
vania for a violent newspaper attack made on President John 
Adams. 

Mr. Harrison was a man of frail physical constitution, but 
of fine intellectual parts. He was a great reader of standard 
literature. He was especially fond of Charles Lamb. There 
seemed to have been something in the gentle spirit of the poet 
and critic of "Elia" that appealed to Mr. Harrison's sensitive 
nature. 

He was not religious when he came to Alabama. At a meet- 
ing held in 1835 he was fully convinced of the reality of the 
Christian religion and of his need of its support. He resolved 
to forsake the world and to seek the Saviour. From that hour 
salvation was the supreme desire of his heart, which was drawn 
out in incessant prayer during his waking hours for twelve 
months, till one day, while riding on horseback in company 
with two godless men, he fell into deep meditation and secret 
prayer. Thus riding along the road with no extraneous help, 
his doubts fled away, and his soul was bathed in the light of 
the divine Spirit, showing that God can meet men anywhere 
when they are ready to meet him. Some people need the stim- 
ulating help of others to enable them to make a full commit- 



REMINISCENCES. 239 

ment of themselves to God. Others must have all human help 
removed before they can come to the point of relying on noth- 
ing but God. Mr. Harrison vv^as not what is generally styled 
a success as a business man, but he was a man of lovely spirit. 

In addressing my school on one occasion he said: "Young 
gentlemen, never try to cover up your sins. Be sure they will 
find you out. But remember that there is always one way out 
of a wrong thing. Have the manhood to acknowledge your 
sin, then you will have the evidence in yourselves that you 
are doing your part to correct your faults and the witness of 
God's Spirit making you feel the blessedness of him whose 
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." 

Mrs. Harrison's maiden name was Adaline H. Simmons. 
She was a woman of rare ability and of extraordinary reli- 
gious zeal. She had a very ardent temperament and was de- 
monstrative in her feelings. I believe that there are many 
persons of less fervid temperament who, though perfectly sin- 
cere in their devotion, do not make the same demonstrations 
that Mrs. Harrison did. "One star differeth from another 
star" in the realm of religious experience as well as in the 
firmament. Mrs, Harrison was "an elect lady" and "adorned 
the doctrine of God her Saviour in all things." 

Rev. and Mrs. Greenberry Garrett. 

Rev. Greenberry Garrett had been for many years an active 
member of the Alabama Conference, but was, when I went to 
Summerfield, a superannuate and held the position of post- 
master in the village. In his early years he had been a mis- 
sionary to the Cherokee Indians in North Alabama and East 
Tennessee. He was familiar with the Indian language and 
was always ready tO' entertain his friends with specimens of 
their speeches and songs. He was presiding elder of the district 
that embraced Pierce's Springs, Mississippi, in 1855. During 
his presiding eldership I made my first public move in religion, 
as stated on a former page. He had a keen dark eye, an aqui- 
line nose, and a large chin, indicating positiveness of character. 
He was by natural disposition a determined man who could not 



240 REMINISCENCES. 

brook restraints gracefully. As he grew older this trait as- 
sumed a tone of impatience. This was manifested when the 
students would ask irrelevant questions about the mails. This 
impatience prevented him from seeing dormant possibilities of 
good in his fellow men. His lack of prophetic vision and sym- 
pathetic faith in young humanity was manifested on one occa- 
sion when he passed an uncomplimentary judgment upon the 
future of Samuel Will John, the baby boy of Mrs. J. R. John. 
This was done in the presence of a large company of friends. 
It deeply wounded Mrs. John, who never forgave it till her son 
had become a man whom she was proud to claim as her son and 
whom the State of Alabama has been pleased to honor as one of 
its strong and valiant men. Rather than pass an unfavorable 
judgment upon a boy, better do as Daniel Webster once said 
that he felt like doing: touch his hat to every boy he met, for 
he was thus paying his respects to the future manhood of the 
country. In her old age Mrs. John used to laugh at this proph- 
ecy, which was entirely reversed. She passed it to the account 
of Mr. Garrett's lack of prophetic vision. 

Mr. Garrett's impatience was prominently exhibited on one 
occasion when he was requested to marry a couple in the 
church at eleven o'clock on Sunday, when he had to preach. 
No doubt he had selected his hymns without any reference to 
the marriage. The bridal party was late getting to the church, 
which was packed with people, many of them seemingly more 
interested in the wedding than they were in the sermon. Necks 
were craned and eyes turned toward the door till the old man's 
patience went all to pieces. Finally the bridal party arrived, 
and the conjugal knot was tied in great haste. The preacher. 
In a harsh voice and in a chopped-up style, as fast as he could 
utter the words, went through the marriage ceremony. Before 
the parties could get fairly away from the chancel, he an- 
nounced his first hymn : 

"Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, 

We wretched sinners lay, 
Without one cheering beam of hope 
Or spark of glimmering day." 



REMINISCENCES. 241 

Notwithstanding his faults, he was a true man, such stuff 
as martyrs are made of. He would have gone to the stake 
for his principles. 

Mrs. Garrett was from VVilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her 
maiden name was Eliza Williams. Her marriage to Mr. Gar- 
rett was her second marriage, as it was also his. She had 
in her own right property enough to support her, but she 
was exceedingly industrious and desirous of seeing the fruits 
of her labors. As her house joined the College lot, she was in 
the habit of taking some girl students to board. Boarders 
are nearly always keen-eyed observers of the saving qualities 
of their hosts and kindly interested reporters of their frugal 
management. Mrs. Garrett's boarders were quite free to 
speak of her fine economical traits, as is evidenced by such 
tender expressions as the following : "Aunt Garrett, please give 
me a little more sugar in my coffee." Her standing answer 
was: "Stir it, my dear." She never permitted undissolved 
sugar to go into her dishwater. But I can bear testimony 
to the fact that she was a kind neighbor, abounding in alms- 
deeds, and that the real salt of Christian charity was remark- 
ably efficient even while working through her human qualities. 

Dr. John S. Moore. 

Dr. John S. Moore deserves mention in this connection. He 
had been a teacher in the male school and was retiring as I 
went in. He was at the next Conference appointed preacher 
in charge of the Summerfield Church, where he remained two 
years. He was a Virginian by birth and education. He had 
taken a four-year course at Randolph-Macon College, from 
which he was graduated. But finding, as he expressed it, that 
he "was not educated," he took an extra four years in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, receiving the degree of M.A. He had a 
fine logical mind that could be satisfied with nothing but abso- 
lutely correct standards in all departments of life. 

He had, as he himself admitted, broken down his ner\'Ous 
system by his protracted courses of study, from which pros- 
tration he never fully recovered. I think this disorder gave his 
16 



242 REMINISCENCES. 

mind more of a somber cast than was natural. Notwithstand- 
ing this tendency to see the darker side of Hfe, he had many 
lovable elements in his composition which I learned to value 
very highly. Besides the cordial relation of pastor and private 
member, we carried on a course of study together. Our sub- 
ject was Sir William Hamilton's "Metaphysics.*' Our plan was 
to get one or two chapters each week and recite the paragraphs 
alternately without using the book, keeping the connection of 
the thought in the development of the subject. I found this 
a stimulating mental exercise as well as a delightful inter- 
course with an open-minded friend in whom there was no guile. 

He was a very exacting teacher, who had no patience with 
shams or shirking. His standard overtopped ordinary pupils. 
He could carry good students along on a high plane, but he 
lacked some of the sympathetic talent required to come down 
to the lower orders of undisciplined minds and inspire them 
with hope and confidence in making the most of themselves. 

As a speaker he was rigid in gesture and inflexible in voice. 
His words came slowly, sometimes hesitatingly ; but when they 
did come, they were the right words. His sentences seemed 
like tempered steel, not susceptible of correction. When he had 
a subject thoroughly wrought out and warmed by the fire of 
his great heart, his speech went forward with convincing pow- 
er. I have heard sermons from him equal to the best I ever 
heard, estimated by what a sermon should be intended to do — 
to produce conviction of the truth. 

When one knew him well, there was a manifest vein of 
humor that effervesced in jokes and funny anecdotes which 
he could tell with surprising effect. 

He would stand by the truth as he conceived it even when it 
was embarrassing to do so. As an illustration, I had a class 
in Bourdon's "Algebra," in a very hard part of the book. A 
member of the class who had been his pupil the year before 
went to him to get help, complaining that the lesson was too 
long. Mr. Moore, thinking that Mr. Hill, my associate, taught 
all the mathematics and that I ought to know what the class 
was saying, informed me the next time he met me that those 



REMINISCENCES. 243 

algebra lessons were too long and that Mr. Hill knew nothing 
about teaching when he gave such lessons. I stated that this 
was my class and that I had given the lessons. I well remem- 
ber his embarrassed expression. He was too honest to take 
back what he believed to be true. He did not wish to wound 
his friend. He felt that there was no explanation that he could 
consistently make. He said nothing for some seconds. I finally 
relieved the tension by saying that I guessed the lessons were 
too long for this class ; that I had had former classes to do this 
work, but if this class could not I would shorten the lessons; 
and that my associate was a good teacher and finally thanked 
him for his candor. He ever afterwards treated me with great 
kindness and respect. I think he became convinced that I 
knew something about teaching, as he in after years sent three 
of his daughters to school to me. 

I have always appreciated two compliments that he paid me : 
that I had religion and common sense and that I knew how to 
kick the chunks out of my way in running my school, 

Mrs. S. L. W. Daniel. 

Mrs. Susan Lee (Winfield) Daniel was born in North Caro- 
lina October 24, 1820, and died in Avondale, Alabama, May i, 
1910, being nearly ninety years of age. When I knew her in 
Summerfield, whither she had moved on account of the schools, 
she was the widowed mother of ten children, eight daughters 
and two sons. Two of these children preceded her, two have 
followed her to the goodly land, and six still survive. 

Although the struggle is a hard one, the mother can rear a 
family better than the father can. Somehow God helps the 
widow, and somehow in the process she often develops a Chris- 
tian character rarely ever seen under other conditions. Mrs. 
Daniel was one of my nearest neighbors and one of the best. 
In cases of sickness and death in my family she was a friend 
indeed. Her piety was of a quiet sort ; but, measured by the 
standard set by Christ in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, 
she should be numbered among those on his right hand. 

Her sons were for several years pupils of mine. One be- 



244 REMINISCENCES. 

came a successful business man in Birmingham; the other is 
Dr. John Daniel, a professor in Vanderbilt University. These 
boys had to work hard and practice economy in their early 
years, the most favorable conditions for making efficient men 
when there is reasonable opportunity for education. Mrs. 
Daniel's history has verified these scriptures, "With long life 
will I satisfy him;" and, "I have not seen the righteous for- 
saken, nor his seed begging bread." 

Dr. S. W. Vaughan. 

Another near neighbor was Dr. S. W. Vaughan, who was 
my family physician and one of the best I ever had. He was 
a man of superior ability, not only as a physician, but as an 
original thinker. He was a religious man, but of a different 
stamp from many others in the community. He was a strong 
believer in the efficacy oi. prayer, I saw this exhibited in some 
of the trying experiences of his life, especially at the deathbed 
of his wife, who passed away not only in peace, but in triumph. 
The Doctor was sure that this triumph over death was in an- 
swer to prayer. Mrs. Vaughan was a splendid woman, was 
consistent in tfer life, but never made such public demonstra- 
tions of her piety as some I have mentioned. 

The Doctor could not indorse some of the doctrines preached 
and some of the highly wrought states of feeling in the reviv- 
als of Summerfield. He thought that these were the cause of 
several cases of insanity in the neighborhood. There was one 
remarkable case of a talented young preacher who became vio- 
lently insane, as was supposed, on account of his intense in- 
terest in religious doctrine. He was like the man of Gadara. 
He could not be bound with chains nor kept confined in the 
asylum. The very mention of Sam Briggs spread terror 
through the neighborhood. 

I am under lasting obligation to Dr. Vaughan and his family 
for many acts of kindness ; also to Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Davis, 
Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Barker, and Mrs. M. A. Jones. I wish 
also to mention the kindness of Dr. C. B. Moore, one of the 
physicians who attended my wife in her last illness. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Bishop James O. Andrew— Colonel Robert A. Baker— Mr. Mark Canning 
and Wife — Friction between the Races— Personal Feeling toward the 
Negroes— Death of Mrs. Fredonia A. Massey— Trouble among the 
Students— Advice of Dr. Mitchell— Marriage to Miss Elnora Frances 
Dallas— The Dallas Family— Students Who Have Become Distinguished 
— Colonel Samuel Will John. 

THE most noted man in the community was Bisliop James 
Osgood Andrew. He was born in Wilkes County, Geor- 
gia, in 1/94, and died in Mobile, at the home of Rev. J. W. 
Rush, his son-in-law, March i, 1871. He was an itinerant 
preacher in the South Carolina Conference from 18 16 to 1832. 
In 1832 he was elected Bishop (|| ihe Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the United States and setyed the entire Church till 
1844. In 1844 he married a lady who owned slaves. On this 
account the Northern members of the General Conference of 
1844 desired him to "desist from the exercise of his office." 
The Southern delegates protested against this action. The 
matter was settled by dividing the Methodism of the United 
States into two Churches, the Methodist Episcopal Church and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The former occupied 
mainly the Northern, or nonslaveholding. States and the latter 
the Southern, or slaveholding, States. This seemed to be the 
only solution of the matter at that time. Such is the outline as 
found in "The Americana." 

Only a brief filling in of this outline will show him to have 
been one of the great and good men of his time. He was 
highly endowed by nature. He had a big brain and a big 
heart, into which the Spirit of God constantly shone from his 
conversion, at the age of twelve years. The following sen- 
tences are taken from Harper's Magazine: 

Bishop Andrew had not many helps in intellectual culture in his youth. 
The schools of Georgia were few. Men of wealth could send their sons to 
Northern colleges or abroad. His parents were not able to give him these 
advantages for mental culture. But his religious training was complete. 

(245) 



246 REMINISCENCES. 

His father was a devoted minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
his mother was a woman of extraordinary intelligence, dignity, and kind- 
ness. He was devoted to his mother, who lived to see the tender care she 
had bestowed upon her cherished son richly rewarded in a life of great 
devotion, unsullied purity, and remarkable success. 

He was licensed to preach at the early age of eighteen and 
started out on his ministerial career with nothing but his Bible, 
hymn book, and Discipline. Besides these weapons, he was 
inspired by the prayers of his mother, who said : "And now, 
my son, remember that I live if you stand fast in the Lord and 
continue faithful in the work of your Master." But his sensi- 
tive spirit could not but feel keenly his limitations for this most 
responsible calling that ever comes to men. So humiliated was 
he at the failure of his first attempt to preach that he resolved 
to abandon the ministry. On his way home he met an African 
slave who had heard him preach. The negro was as much edi- 
fied by the effort as young Andrew was depressed by it. This 
was a critical moment in his life. If he could benefit even the 
humblest, he resolved to conquer his diffidence and to go on 
in the ministry. From this time there was opened in his great 
heart a never- failing fountain of love and sympathy for the 
lowly. He was ever ready to speak in their behalf. 

Harper's Magazine gives an account of a great speech made 
by Mr. Andrew at the missionary anniversary of the South 
Carolina Conference early in 1832. Professor Parks, who had 
a great reputation as an orator, was slated for a speech which 
all were desirous of hearing. Mr. Andrew was called to make 
the introductory speech. As he lifted the negro out of his 
humble condition through the power of the gospel into a place 
in his Father's house, the people, who had been accustomed to 
hang on the golden tongue of William Capers, were trans- 
ported into ecstasy. A gentleman distinguished in politics, 
who had heard Henry Clay in his best moods, declared that he 
had never heard him equal that speech of Mr. Andrew's. Pro- 
fessor Parks gracefully excused himself from following so 
powerful a speech. 



REMINISCENCES. 247 

This speech was made in behalf of the missionary work 
among the negroes. Some who were not interested in mis- 
sions anywhere were afraid that such work among the slaves 
would have an evil influence. But the zeal and eloquence of 
Andrew and Capers overcame this opposition and created an 
active missionary organization which extended throughout the 
South Atlantic and Gulf States. This opened the way for all 
the preachers to carry the gospel to the colored people through 
a society which could conserve the results. Some of the best 
preachers gave their entire time to this work. One result was 
to accomplish more for the evangelization of the African than 
had been done up to that time through all the past centuries. 
Another result was to counteract the influence of such fanatical 
schemes as that of John Brown and to render morally impossi- 
ble during the war and the Reconstruction period such anarchy 
and butchery as were perpetrated in Santo Domingo. This 
successful effort in Christianizing the negroes has been singu- 
larly omitted by many writers. The negroes should not be too 
much blamed if they have forgotten it, since the drift of events 
has tended to blot it from their memory. 

The negro never had a better friend than Bishop Andrew. 
It is not an uncommon thing that the most devoted friends of 
a good cause are the ones to suffer most from misrepresenta- 
tion. It was so with Bishop Andrew. During the stormy dis- 
cussions of 1844 and afterwards he was accused of selfish and 
ignoble motives, but through it all he bore himself with ad- 
mirable self-possession and noble dignity. 

I knew him only in his old age and extreme feebleness. In 
the few efforts which I heard him make there was no sign of 
his former power as an orator, I asked Dr. Mitchell, who 
knew him in his prime, how he in his old age compared with 
himself in his meridian. The Doctor said that in his palmy 
days he was a man of great power in the pulpit and of extraor- 
dinary common sense in administration; that, while his power 
of oratory had passed with the vigor of his manhood, his good 
judgment and genial spirit remained like a glorious sunset 
after a brilliant day. 



248 REMINISCENCES. 

Colonel Robert A. Baker. 

Another prominent man of Summerfield was Colonel Robert 
A. Baker. He had just moved out as I moved in. Although 
I was not acquainted with him through personal association, I 
had excellent opportunities for becoming acquainted with his 
character and methods of business. During my first year's 
residence in the place I boarded with Mr. Lewis R. Davis, an 
intimate friend and admirer of Colonel Baker. He gave me 
much information concerning Colonel Baker. 

Another opportunity of becoming acquainted with his spirit 
and manner of life grew out of the fact that he was the execu- 
tor of the estate of Mr. Alexander Dallas and the guardian 
of his minor children, one of whom became my wife seven 
years later. A brief reference to him may not, therefore, be 
out of place, as this may throw some light on the history of 
the times. He was a man of large brain and might appropri- 
ately have been called "Mr. Greatheart." He was interested in 
every good work that was going on and was ready to initiate 
any enterprise that looked to the betterment of his fellow men. 
He was a leader in all Church work, took part in the public 
discussions of the day, and was the organizer of a business on 
a great scale. He was a cotton factor, whose main office was 
located in Mobile, the center of the cotton trade. He was 
the custodian of the property of many widows and orphans. 
There were no such institutions as guaranty and trust compa- 
nies. Much of the business now done by such companies was 
then intrusted to the hands of individual men. As Colonel 
Baker had the confidence of the people, much of this business 
was committed to his management. One of the cardinal prin- 
ciples of his business code was: "Keep in debt, as this stimu- 
lates activity in business." He never carried this principle so 
far as was expressed by another enterprising business man in 
later years : "Keep in debt about two jumps ahead of the sher- 
iff." But such a principle is lacking in proper caution and in 
strict regard for the interests of other people. When the cur- 
rent of business runs smoothly, all may turn out well; but 



REMINISCENCES. 249 

when it has to run over shoals and falls, great disasters are 
often the result. 

When the war came, Colonel Baker was heavily loaded with 
debt. He had in his business the money of many people who 
could least afford to lose it. He was an honest man. He was 
keenly alive to this responsibility. He left his quiet home in 
Summerfield soon after the surrender, went to Mobile, and 
made a desperate effort to carry his business through success- 
fully. But the task was too great for a man past middle life. 
He went to a premature grave under the strain. He died like 
many another good and great-hearted man, as one of the fatal 
results of the war. While much of the finest blood that ever 
ran in Southern veins was already in the cold ground when 
the Confederacy went down in tears, still much more was 
doomed to be dried up in its fountains through disappoint- 
ment, sorrow, and grief. 

Mr. W. L. Baker did all he could to keep the business going 
after his father's death and to recoup the rightful dues to 
creditors and guardians, but that business had gone over the 
falls and went to pieces along the rapids during the succeeding 
years of Reconstruction. The Dallas heirs never received much 
of the fine estate their father left them in 1858. 

Mr. Mark Canning and His Wife. 

Mr. Mark Canning was another citizen with whom I enter- 
tained the most cordial relations for many years. He came 
from Ireland in his early manhood, stopped for a short time in 
Livingston, Alabama, and worked at his trade. Mr. Stephen 
Potts, a relative of Colonel Baker, discovered the fine points 
in the character and the mechanical skill of this young man 
and recommended him to Colonel Baker, who was looking for 
a good workman for his town. Through the influence of these 
gentlemen Mr. Canning came to Summerfield. As soon as his 
fine qualities were fully proved, Dr. Mitchell, who owned a 
blacksmith and wagon shop, took him in as a partner. He 
showed such efificiency and trustworthiness that the Doctor 
committed to him the whole management of the business and 



250 REMINISCENCES. 

the care of his house while he went to Montgomery to take 
charge of Court Street Church, So satisfactory was Mr. Can- 
ning's work, much of which he did with his own hands, that 
the shop drew trade from the adjacent country and even from 
Selma. He was soon able to buy out Dr. Mitchell's interest 
and to run the shop successfully on his own account. 

While he was a man of limited education, he was endowed 
with quick perceptive powers, lively sensibilities, and as gener- 
ous impulses as any man ever brought from the emerald hills 
of Robert Emmett and Daniel O'Connell. Proud but affable, 
self-respecting but full of good cheer, he made everybody in 
the village feel better by his hearty laughter. He dressed 
well, drove the finest horse in town, and associated with the 
most cultivated ladies of the community. He married Miss 
Sallie Isabella Dallas, who belonged to one of the prominent 
families of the place. 

He had imbibed some of Colonel Baker's notions of borrow- 
ing money and doing business on a large scale. He believed 
in having everything done in fine style. He had no patience 
with a niggardly spirit. He sometimes manifested scant re- 
spect for small economies. The following instance is an illus- 
tration. An old gentleman by the name of Torbert sent two 
boys to my school. On his visits to Summerfield he would 
pay fifty cents to ride from Selma on a wagon rather than pay 
two dollars to ride in a fine hack. Mr. Canning thought this 
was beneath the dignity of a gentleman. 

When Mr. Torbert's boys left school he owed me seventy- 
one dollars, which he was not able to pay on account of the 
failure of the crops and the financial panic of 1873. Eleven 
years after Mr. Torbert's boys left school he sent me a post 
office order for every dollar he owed me. His example is one 
of many that should put us on guard against discounting peo- 
ple who practice small economies. Such people are often hon- 
est ; and honesty merits respect, even if not so amiable a qual- 
ity as generosity. 

Mr. Canning was doing well in Summerfield, but he decided 
to move to Selma and enlarge his business more rapidly than 



REMINISCENCES. 251 

lie could do by his annual income. He had a fine prospect. 

Extensive additions seemed to be demanded in his shops. This 

required more money, which he could easily borrow ; but when 

the panic of 1893 came and other untoward events followed, 

he had to close his business hopelessly involved in debt. He 

went to his grave a mournful wreck of his former self. Let 

the shepherd's song in Browning's "Saul" be his elegy: 

"The man taught by Hfe's dream, of rest to make sure; 
By the pain-throb, triumphantly winning intensiiied bliss, 
And the next world's reward and repose, by the struggles in this." 

Mrs. Sallie I. Canning was one of the elect ladies of the 
land. After she moved to Selma, in 1876, she became an en- 
thusiastic worker in the United Charities of that city. She 
was full of good works and almsdeeds, like Dorcas, while she 
lived ; and now being dead, her name is still redolent of good 
deeds among her neighbors, both Jews and Gentiles, both 
whites and negroes. 

Friction between the Races. 

The session of 1870-71 was a very trying one. In addition 
to the continued decline in my wife's health, some ugly troubles 
between the races gave me a good deal of annoyance. I had 
always entertained a friendly feeling toward the negroes and 
could get along with them; but young, hot-blooded students 
could not live peaceably with them, especially when the negroes 
were incited by a low class of "carpetbaggers" and "scala- 
wags" who were trying to climb into places of profit and power 
by stirring up strife between the races in order to curry favor 
with the national government. The leaders of the Republican 
party at that time may have been honest, but it is hard for any 
man who lived through the days of Reconstruction to believe 
that they were fair judges of the situation. 

The friction between the whites and the negroes became at 
one time very acute. A difficulty arose between a student and 
a negro. A company of negroes surrounded the room of the 
student and made some ill-natured demonstrations. The other 
students and a number of white men collected for the protec- 



252 REMINISCENCES. 

tion of the student. The negroes, knowing that they were 
backed by great numbers in the county and by the carpetbag 
rulers in Selma, grew very insolent. Some of the older white 
men and some of the negroes held a meeting in the interest of 
peace. But some of the leading negroes did not want peace. 
They kept stirring up the animosity of the negroes in Selma 
till they finally threatened to come out to Summerfield and burn 
the town. While I knew that threats were cheap and should 
not be taken too seriously, I did not know to what lengths 
mean whisky and malicious white men might lead a crowd of 
ignorant negroes inflamed beyond the control of reason. As 
we were afterwards informed, three hundred did start with the 
express purpose of executing this threat ; but they were halted 
and turned back on the outskirts of Selma by a company of 
determined white men headed by Captain Joseph F. Johnston, 
afterwards Governor and later United States Senator. It 
is due Senator Johnston to say that he did valiant service in 
rescuing the State from the domination of ignorance and 
fraud. He was an efficient man wherever he served. 

In these troublous times we were, of course, determined to 
defend ourselves; but it was a distressing situation to be placed 
in when we might be forced to take the lives of ignorant be- 
ings egged on by bad leaders who would slip back out of the 
range of all risk when danger came. I felt that if I had to 
choose between open war with an honorable foe and this state 
of things, I should choose war. 

The most deplorable result of the Reconstruction period was 
the alienation of the negroes from the whites. The leaders 
under carpetbag rule sought to accomplish this alienation for 
selfish purposes. Some of the white teachers in the colored 
schools of that period, prompted no doubt by humane motives, 
thought that the surest way to elevate the negro to independ- 
ence was to separate him from the sympathy and the service of 
his former master. These teachers did not have the sanity 
and the vision of General S. C. Armstrong, who saw that these 
ill-timed efforts to thrust the negro forward before he was 
ready for self-government were, as he expressed it, ''like a 



REMINISCENCES. 253 

wooden bridge built over a river of fire." These unwise at- 
tempts, occurring simultaneously with the insolent conduct of 
those in political power, backed by the army, sometimes pro- 
voked the Southern people to acts of violence which increased 
the animosity between the races. This hostile feeling, like the 
opening of a levee and "the letting out of water," was more 
easily started than stopped. 

Personal Feeling toward the Negroes. 

After saying this let me say again that I entertain none but 
kind feelings toward the colored people. It should never be 
forgotten that before the war the relations between them and 
their masters were, in the main, very cordial ; that during the 
war they remained peaceable on the farms and made the crops 
for the support of the country while most of the white men 
were in the army ; that some of them, as I have already stated, 
exhibited remarkable fidelity to their masters under trying 
circumstances; and that during the days of Reconstruction 
they did not do so badly as might have been expected. The 
Indians of America would have done worse, as hundreds of 
scalps proved. The Indians of Asia would have been more 
malignant, as the Black Hole in Calcutta showed. 

It will be a mark of wisdom in the colored people to endure 
their lot patiently till they can, by working according to the 
laws of God, make their condition better. It will be a mark 
of magnanimity in the white people to treat them in a spirit of 
forbearance, kindness, and fairness while they are trying to 
improve their condition. It will be the part of humanity and 
piety in both races to "bear each other's burdens" and to seek 
the guidance of the universal Father, who can bring order out 
of chaos, light out of darkness, and good out of evil when his 
laws are reverenced and obeyed. 

On October 14, 1871, in Summerfield, Alabama, my daugh- 
ter, Fredonia Eva Massey, was born. She has always been 
appreciative of her opportunities for education. After grad- 
uating from the Alabama Conference Female College, she spent 



254 REMINISCENCES. 

three years in the New England Conservatory of Music, com- 
pleting the course for graduation in pianoforte. Since then 
she has studied two years in Berlin and three years in Paris. 
She has the reputation of being an excellent teacher; and, 
what is still more to her credit, I never knew her to be guilty 
of a falsehood. She inherited many of her mother's fine qual- 
ities. It is my devout wish that she may cultivate the faith in 
Christ that sustained her mother to the end. 

Death of Mrs. Fredonia A. Massey. 

At the beginning of the session of 1871-72 I took no stu- 
dents into my family on account of my wife's health, which 
continued to decline. Several weeks before the end came I had 
called for her mother, who came promptly and remained till 
the worst was all over. 

The doctors had told me that they saw no chance for my 
wife's recovery. The day before she died she asked me what 
they thought of her case. I felt obliged to tell her what they 
said. She closed her eyes as if in solemn prayer for some 
moments. She evidently felt that she was facing the awful 
change. I read to her portions of the fourteenth chapter of 
John and tried to center her faith on Christ, who had gone to 
prepare a place for her whenever it was His will to take her to 
Himself. I had been feeling for several days that I could not 
bear to see her go out into the darkness of death. I prayed 
most earnestly that God would make her way clear, if it was 
His will to take her. The following evening she seemed per- 
fectly reconciled. Her mind was as clear as it had ever been. 
She spoke to me about the children and expressed concern for 
them. She said that she did not ask fame or fortune for them ; 
she only desired that they might be prepared for eternity. She 
sent messages to her relatives in Jackson. She gave directions 
about her burial and bade us all an affectionate farewell, in- 
cluding the servant, Lavinia, whom she exhorted to lead a 
good life and meet her in heaven. During the night she asked 
us to sing. Rev. A. D. McVoy sang, at her request : 



REMINISCENCES. 255 

"Jesus, Lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the nearer waters roll, 

While the tempest still is high! 
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, 

Till the storm of life is past; 
Safe into the haven guide, 

receive my soul at last ! 

Other refuge have I none; 

Hangs my helpless soul on thee : 
Leave, ah ! leave me not alone, 

Still support and comfort me : 
All my trust on thee is stayed. 

All my help from thee I bring; 
Cover my defenseless head 

With the shadow of thy wing. 

Thou, O Christ, art all I want; 

More than all in thee I find; 
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, 

Heal the sick, and lead the blind. 
Just and holy is thy name, 

1 am all unrighteousness; 
False and full of sin I am. 

Thou art full of truth and grace. 

Plenteous grace with thee is found, 

Grace to cover all my sin : 
Let the healing streams abound; 

Make and keep me pure within. 
Thou of life the fountain art, 

Freely let me take of thee: 
Spring thou up within my heart. 

Rise to all eternity." 

In parts of this hymn she joined with evident j'oy. Among 
her last utterances was the prayer of Stephen: "Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit." After several hours of unconsciousness, 
she passed away at twelve o'clock the next day, November 21, 
1 87 1. When it was all over, I felt sure that she was released 
from suffering and was at rest in Paradise. Her mother, 
though deeply afflicted, bore it with striking Christian forti- 
tude. 

We carried her body to Jackson, Alabama, and laid it away 
in the family graveyard. The good-hearted Lavinia went with 



256 REMINISCENCES. 

us to take care of the children, the oldest four years old, the 
next two, and the youngest six weeks. 

In this connection I shall mention the unselfish friendship 
of my neighbor, Rev. Simon Peter Richardson, who went with 
me at his own expense on this sad trip and delivered a beautiful 
funeral discourse in honor of my wife. He also baptized the 
baby, Fredonia Eva Massey, while in Jackson. 

I had to return to my school and my desolate home. My 
little boy Johnnie was so distressed on my leaving that it al- 
most broke my heart ; but I had to go to work to make a living 
for myself and my children, and I also felt a new motive to 
do something to relieve the sorrows of the world as well as to 
relieve my own necessities. I found useful occupation to be 
a great solace in sorrow. 

When I went to Jackson sometime later to see my children, 
my little boy clung to me so tenaciously, begging me not to 
leave him again, that I determined, contrary to the judgment 
of his grandmother, to take him back to Summerfield with me. 
Never v^^as a child more devoted to his father. He was per- 
fectly contented with me and was a great consolation to my 
bereaved spirit. 

He generally went with me to the academy in the morning 
and played around the yard while I was engaged with my 
classes. Sometimes I left him with Mrs. Daniel, my next-door 
neighbor. She and my other kind neighbors nursed him 
through a severe spell of fever in the fall of 1872. My faith- 
ful servant Lavinia did much in helping me to take care of him. 

My two younger children I had to leave with their big- 
hearted grandmother and her faithful daughters. My sister- 
in-law, Miss Teresa Taylor, took charge of the baby, to whom 
she was as much devoted as if it had been her own child. 
During the winter the children had the whooping cough, which 
greatly increased her labor and anxiety. I am under lasting 
obligation to her as well as to her mother and sisters. As some 
compensation for her care of my children at a time when I 
could not take care of them myself, years afterwards, when 



REMINISCENCES. 257 

she was In her grave, I took her daughter, Eva Graham, and 
kept her in college for six years, till her graduation. 

Trouble among the Students. 

During these years, besides my ow^n private sorrows, I had 
trouble with some turbulent boys whom revival meetings could 
not work into peaceable, to say nothing of saintly, ways. I 
had difficulty not only in keeping them from a state of antag- 
onism with the negroes, but at one time from a state of war 
between two factions in the school. This became very acute. 
I had used moral suasion and all milder means till patience 
ceased to be a virtue. After trying for a week to reason the 
demon out of the boys, I got up on Monday morning, after a 
troublous Sunday, determined to cast him out or cast the boys 
out. I put on my best suit of clothes. I always had a sort of 
instinct that there is some virtue in good clothes, though I had 
not always been able to wear them. I went to the academy fully 
determined what I would do. A full determination even in a 
crisis sets the mind somewhat at ease. 

I told the boys in a few words that I had been dealing with 
them as gentlemen and that this course had met with slight re- 
sponse, that I had decided that the peace of the school should 
be disturbed no longer, and that all who were not willing to 
respect my wishes for harmony and good order must go now. 
I asked the leader on one side whether he wished to go now or 
to remain on terms of permanent peace. He looked rather 
taken aback and said that he wanted to stay in school and 
would promise to comply with my wishes. I asked the leader 
of the other faction what he wished to do. He said that he 
was willing to make peace and would promise to maintain it. 
I said: "Now, don't make any promises unless you are going 
to keep them. Any renewal of these disturbances will after 
this, ipso facto, cut you off. If you know your minds and 
mean to avoid strife, meet here in front of my desk and shake 
hands as a ratification of your promises." This they did. 
Then I asked all who were willing to bury all differences and 
to cultivate a spirit of good will to hold up their hands. All 

17 



258 REMINISCENCES. 

hands went up. I had gained my point. As they retired from 
the room at recess, those who had been at daggers' points went 
out locked in each other's arms. 

A few times in my experience as a teacher I have had to pass 
a critical point, which I managed to do successfully. I always 
avoided making a sharp issue, if possible. There is danger in 
it. It is not best to brandish the sword of justice too freely, 
but it has to be drawn sometimes. When it is drawn, it must 
be used, as far as necessary, to secure respect for rightful au- 
thority. 

Advice of Dr. Mitchell. 

After the death of my wife, I had no disposition to go into 
society. I did not seek the company of ladies. Her life and 
death had made a profound impression upon me. I can under- 
stand the liability of people of deep feeling to cultivate morbid 
sentiments for the dead to an unreasonable degree without 
being aware of it. 

In the spring of 1873 Dr. Mitchell took the liberty of sug- 
gesting to me the second time that, as I was still a young man,, 
I might make a mistake in remaining single too long; that 
the solitary life I was living was not the most conducive either 
to my usefulness or to my happiness ; that it would not be well 
to have my children grow up away from me; that if another 
woman was ever to take charge of them it would be best to 
make the change while they were young ; and that he had been 
through a similar experience and advised me to entertain the 
thought of a second marriage. I made no reply, but took the 
matter under consideration. 

I found upon examination that the parables of Christ threw 
light on the relation of the sexes in the future life; that "they 
who shall be accounted worthy to attain that world and the 
resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in 
marriage; . . . for they are equal unto the angels of God," 
plainly teaching that some of the affinities of tliis world are not 
perpetuated in the next, except as they have helped us, as all 
human affinities should do, to grow up into those higher uni- 
versal relations that exist in the family of God in heave,n. I 



REMINISCENCES. 259 

saw that, while I was living in the world, it would be best to 
use the ordinances which God has established and designed to 
promote our highest development and greatest usefulness. 

I had had no ordinary woman for a wife, and I was sure 
that I did not want an ordinary one. But, then, where could 
I find one who would appeal to my imagination and hold my 
afifections? There was a young woman who had graduated 
two years before with distinguished honors under President 
W. J. Vaughn and was considered by President McVoy as the 
most accomplished and valuable teacher in his faculty. She 
was very modest, but dignified and attractive, a young woman 
of refined manners and discriminating taste, as was shown by 
the fine exhibitions which she directed. Would so accom- 
plished a young woman be willing to unite her fortune with a 
poor man handicapped with three little children? I did not 
know ; but, be this as it might, I knew that I would never win 
the kind of woman that could appeal to me if I did not show 
self-respecting manhood enough to appeal to her fancy. She 
was living with her brother-in-law, a good friend of mine. I 
asked him if there was any objection to my visiting Miss Dal- 
las at his home. He said there was none. I then asked her 
permission to visit her in a social way. She granted it. And 
so the matter went on till our engagement was made for the 
following fall. 

Marriage to Miss Elnora Frances Dallas. 

As I had to get my house in order to take some boarding 
pupils the ensuing season and had to bring my two younger 
children from Jackson, I thought it best for our marriage to 
take place in the early part of the summer. We were married 
on July 9, 1873, by President A. D. McVoy. 

The Dallas Family. 

Mr. Alexander Dallas was born on the Island of Islay, 
Scotland, February 14, 1798. At the age of twenty-two he 
came to the United States, landing in South Carolina. By 
diligent work and careful economy he accumulated a small 



26o REMINISCENCES. 

capital. With this he came to Alabama, settling first near Bel- 
mont, in Sumter County. Later he crossed the Bigbee River 
into Greene County and bought the plantation on which he 
lived the remainder of his life. 

While he was in South Carolina he was married to Miss 
Eliza Lucy, who died in the Belmont home, leaving six chil- 
dren. About two years later he was married again, to Miss 
Frances B. Jackson, whose family also had come from South 
Carolina. Though not yet seventeen years old, she was a 
woman of great strength and dignity, who through her whole 
life commanded the respect and affection of her husband's 
children by his first marriage. She herself became the mother 
of eight children, all of whom but one grew to maturity. 

Both husband and wife were endowed by nature with a high 
degree of common sense and wonderful capacity for toil and 
endurance. She, like Solomon's wise woman, looked well to 
the ways of her household, while he gave his personal super- 
intendence to the affairs of his plantation. While a kind and 
considerate master, he knew what good work was and always 
managed to secure the best efforts of his slaves. He took an 
honest pride in his work. A man of robust health, he was 
never known to be ill. When death came to him, it was by an 
accident. While superintending the starting of a new gin his 
sleeve was caught in the saws, his arm was drawn in, and the 
arteries were so badly lacerated that he bled to death before a 
physician could be summoned, October 23, 1858. 

Our plan in the war was to tie a cord or a handkerchief very 
tightly above the wound till a better appliance could be ob- 
tained. If this had been done in Mr. Dallas's case, his life 
would probably have been saved. Dying at the age of sixty, 
he had reared and educated eight of his fourteen children and 
accumulated an estate worth about seventy-five thousand dol- 
lars, which, through the disasters of war, ran to waste in the 
next few years. 

Mr. Dallas took much interest in promoting good schools in 
the community. His active mind was so eager for knowledge 
that he was careful to improve himself by a wide range of 



REMINISCENCES. 261 

good reading, especially in history, biography, and rehgious 
literature. In politics he was a Whig and an ardent admirer 
of Henry Clay. His faith in God was the crowning glory of 
his strong and useful life. He conducted family worship in 
his home and frequently called in his slaves for prayer and 
religious instruction. When they got married, he had the cere- 
mony performed by a minister and gave them a wedding feast. 
Mighty in prayer and fervent in exhortation, he served his 
Church well as steward and class leader. Rev. Josiah Barker, 
who was once his pastor, told me something of his whole- 
hearted piety, which often broke forth in praises to God. Dur- 
ing the annual protracted meetings he was always careful to 
look after the entertainment of visitors from other communi- 
ties. 

Airs. Frances Jackson Dallas, his wife, was equally as strong 
a character as her husband, but of a less demonstrative tem- 
perament. In the language of Dr. Mitchell, who knew her 
well : 

Her piety was quiet, but decided; not very demonstrative, but very 
consistent; always upon the side of right and ready for every good word 
and work. Hers was a well-rounded Christian character; "not slothful in 
business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Like the woman in the 
Gospel, "she did what she could" while she lived; and, having served her 
generation according to the will of God, she, like David, "fell on sleep 
and was laid to her fathers." 

Next to the youngest child of these worthy parents was El- 
nora Frances Massey, who inherited their intelligence, energy, 
and philanthropic spirit, and who did honor to them and to 
every relation that she sustained in her passage through the 
world. 

Students Who Became Distinguished. 

The session of 1873-74 opened with only a moderate patron- 
age. We had just passed through the financial panic of 1873, 
and money was very scarce — a condition that always works a 
hardship on schools dependent on patronage for support. The 
work of the year went on without any striking features. As 
this was my eighth and, as it turned out to be, my last year 



262 REMINISCENCES. 

at Summerfield, I shall here give a resume of the work. Dur- 
ing these rather inauspicious years I had many good students 
and some very superior ones, quite a number, considering the 
size of the school, who have attained large influence. Among 
them Dr. John S. Frazer, who is one of the leading members 
of the Alabama Conference, and the late Dr. V. O. Hawkins, 
of the North Alabama Conference, are representative clergy- 
men; Judge John R. Tyson, formerly Chief Justice of Ala- 
bama, the late Judge J. C. Richardson, Mr. F. M. Jackson, the 
late Freeman Daniel, of Birmingham, Mr. Henry L. Gaines, 
Dr. Vivian P. Gaines, of Mobile, and Dr. John Daniel, of 
Vanderbilt University, are representative laymen. 

One of the most brilliant among the students of those years 
was Rev. Robert T. Nabors, who became well known as an 
orator. Bishop O. P. Fitzgerald wrote this eulogy: 

Rev. R. T. Nabors, Chaplain of Vanderbilt University, died of pneu- 
monia on Tuesday, April i, 1884. The body was laid to rest in the Van- 
derbilt burying ground amid manifestations of profound feeling. He died 
early, but he lived long enough to develop a Christian character of ex- 
quisite symmetry and beauty; long enough to impress his influence upon a 
large and rapidly widening circle of admiring and affectionate friends; 
long enough to attain a pulpit excellence rarely equaled; long enough to 
leave a name that, in the circle of those who knew him as he was, will be 
linked with those of Summerfield and Cookman. 

In 1880 he preached the commencement sermon before the 
Alabama Conference Female College. Many who heard it 
pronounced it the most eloquent sermon that they had ever 
heard. When I offered to pay him for his services, he would 
take nothing, saying : "You have already paid me many times 
in what you did for me in Summerfield." 

Altogether, I feel assured that my work was not in vain, 
though not a financial success and not without trouble and 
sorrow. Summerfield was on the wane. It was an inaccessible 
place, in addition to the drawback mentioned on a former page. 
It was becoming harder every year to get patronage from a 
distance. Upon the foreign patronage the school had mainly 
to rely, as the local patronage was small. I had come to see 
that this was not now a good location for a school, whatever it 



REMINISCENCES. 263 

might have been in former years under entirely different con- 
ditions. I saw that, if I was ever to do much as a teacher, I 
must go where the pupils were to be found. 

At the close of the session in July, 1874, some of the trus- 
tees were very desirous that I should take charge of both 
schools, the female college as well as the male academy. Pro- 
fessor McVoy had been talking about going away. I reluc- 
tantly consented to the arrangement on two conditions : First, 
that McVoy was not to be superseded unless his resignation 
was voluntarily offered; and, second, that the proposed ar- 
rangement should meet the unanimous approval of the Board. 
The Board by a majority vote decided to place both schools 
under my supervision. I found that McVoy was very much 
hurt at the action of the Board and that this action was not 
unanimous. I positively declined to have anything to do with 
an arrangement that would displace a fellow teacher. McVoy 
was retained for another year. 

Colonel Samuel Will John. 

During my residence in Summerfield I became intimately 
acquainted with the family of Judge J. R. John, of Selma, one 
of whose sons, Samuel Will, I had known at the University. 
This young man of positive and courageous temperament stood 
ready to check all forms of shirking and deception among his 
fellow cadets. His conduct was prophetic of what he has since 
become, one of the most intelligent and enterprising citizens 
of the commonwealth, one who regards the welfare of the 
public above his own advancement. He deserves honorable 
mention, not only because he has been my intimate friend for 
fifty years, but also because he has rendered valuable sugges- 
tions in the preparation of these notes. I had the honor of 
teaching his daughter. Miss Estelle John, and of graduating 
his niece. Miss Mary Blandin, during my connection with the 
college in Tuskegee. Two of his sisters, Misses Mary and 
Annie John, were college mates and bosom friends of my wife, 
Elnora Frances Dallas, with whom the latter divided the first 
honors of their class. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Move to Mobile— Mr. William Otis— Father Abram J. Ryan— Dr. E. P. 
Gaines — Dr. Jefferson Hamilton — Dawn of a Brighter Day for the 
South — The Last Speech of Jefferson Davis. 

TN September, 1874, I had some communication with Dr. 
■■- Hamilton, presiding elder of the Mobile District, relative to 
a district high school which his District Conference had re- 
solved to establish in the city of Mobile. The committee that 
had charge of the matter offered me two thousand dollars and 
a house to live in for the first year, with the understanding that 
suitable buildings should be erected for the future operation of 
the school. I offered my resignation to the Board of Centenary 
Institute and made my arrangements to move to Mobile. 

I went ahead of my family and opened the school. In a few 
days a letter came from my wife stating that Johnnie was sick. 
Soon afterwards came the sad intelligence that he had diph- 
theria and later a summons to return to Summerfield at once. 
I found my bright, beautiful seven-year-old boy at death's 
door. This was a distressing sight. He died on October 10, 
1874; and we buried him near Bryan Dallas, my wife's brother, 
who was killed in the army and whose remains were brought 
home for interment. Though the loss of this intelligent and 
interesting boy, who had been my close companion, grieved me 
sorely, I did not complain. I recalled that Christ had said, in 
speaking of children : "Their angels do always behold the face 
of my Father who is in heaven." I knew not what trouble and 
anguish God had saved him from by taking him while his 
"mind was pure and form was young." 

"Go to thy rest, fair child, 

Go to thy dreamless bed, 
Gentle and meek and mild. 

With blessings on thy head; 
Ere sin could wound thy breast, 

Or sorrow wake the tear. 
Rise to thy home of rest 

In yon celestial sphere." 

(264) 



REMINISCENCES. 265 

As soon as possible I returned to Mobile with my family 
and resumed my work in the school, which Dr. William Shap- 
ard, pastor of St. Francis Street Church, had kindly carried on 
during my absence. 

There was an epidemic of smallpox in the city, and yellow 
flags were posted all around us during the whole winter. We 
were vaccinated; and after the first flush of apprehension we 
went wherever we pleased in the city with immunity from the 
disease. 

Soon after our arrival we united with Franklin Street 
Church ("the old beehive") because my friend, Rev. J. W. 
Rush, was the pastor. At the following Conference he was 
succeeded by Dr. Edward Wadsworth, who has been men- 
tioned. Dr. Wadsworth was an able preacher of zeal and 
power. His distinguishing characteristic, along with the clear- 
ness of his sermons, was the exceeding particularity about his 
grammar. In the exegesis of his text he would frequently do 
some parsing. But he rarely ever failed to make the subject 
clear and convincing. 

Mr. William Otis. 

The most prominent and influential man in Franklin Street 
Church at this time was Mr. William Otis, an Englishman, 
who had come to this country a poor man, had engaged in the 
sawmill business, and had accumulated a considerable amount 
of property. He was very economical in his personal expend- 
itures and very liberal in all Church work and public enter- 
prises for the relief of the sick and the suffering. He had 
a big square head, a broad nose, and a red English face — 
a typical John Bull in dogged persistence. You could not 
coerce him. You had to lead him if you moved him at all. 
But back of his heavy-looking physiognomy there was as big 
a heart as ever came from Old England. In his religious no- 
tions he was a genuine Wesleyan. Prayer meetings, class 
meetings, love feasts, and watch nights never became obso- 
lescent in his mind. Camp meetings too were great meetings 
with him. He kept a large two-story cottage on the Seashore 



266 REMINISCENCES. 

Camp Ground, at which he entertained liberally all visitors who 
were not able to pay board at the public tent. He also believed 
in kneeling for prayer, which he always had before breakfast. 
On one occasion while prayer was being conducted in his tent 
a young man failed to kneel. Mr. Otis went to him and laid 
his hand upon his shoulder, saying: "Kneel down, young man. 
Any one who eats at my tent must kneel for prayer." Mr. 
Otis was in some respects like Mr. Alexander Dallas, who has 
been mentioned, though of a less ardent temperament. 

We had many pleasant friends in the membership of our 
Church, among them the Michaels, the Simmses, the Austins, 
the Hoppers, the Reids, the Porters, and the Dicksons. In 
St. Francis Street also we had many warm friends, among 
whom were the Bakers, the Dormans, the Banners, the Wil- 
liamses, and the Hearins. 

Father Abram J. Ryan. 

One of the most noted men in Mobile during my residence 
there was the Catholic priest. Father Abram Joseph Ryan. He 
was a Southerner to the core. He was born in Norfolk, Vir- 
ginia, April 15, 1839, and died in Louisville, Kentucky, in 
1886. Soon after his ordination he entered the Confederate 
army as chaplain and continued In this service till the close of 
the war. 

He was a man rather below medium height, of florid com- 
plexion, with a large head covered with light auburn hair 
which hung down over his shoulders. I heard him in the pul- 
pit and on the platform. He was in demand on nearly all 
public occasions. He was an easy, graceful speaker, rather 
ornate than strong. He was a man of poetic temperament and 
wrote a number of poems which were very popular in the 
South after the war, more, I think, on account of the intense 
Southern feeling they expressed than for their intrinsic literary 
merits. While we accord to him the virtue of being a true 
patriot, he seemed never to have been able to get away from 
the sentiments expressed in "The Conquered Banner" and 
"The Sword of Lee." Perhaps if he had lived longer he would 



REMINISCENCES. 267 

have seen what General Lee saw at once, that it was not the 
part of wisdom to perpetuate bitter regrets over the "lost 
cause," however natural such regrets might be. 

These verses from his poem, "The Quest of the Soul," leave 
no doubt that he was a man of sincere piety : 

"I walked in the world with the worldly, 

I craved what the world never gave; 
And I said : 'In the world each ideal 

That flits like a barque on life's wave 
Is wrecked on the shores of the real 

And sleeps in a dreamless grave.' 

So I toiled on, tired of the human, 
And I moaned 'mid the mazes of men, 

Till I knelt, long ago, at the altar, 
And I heard a voice call me. Since then 

I walk down the valley of silence 
That lies far beyond human ken. 

Do you ask what I found in the valley? 

'Tis my trysting place with the divine, 
And I fell at the feet of the holy : 

Then above a voice said, 'Be mine'; 
And there arose from the depths of my spirit 

An answer : 'My heart shall be thine.' " 

Dr. E. p. Gaines. 

Another prominent man in Mobile at this time was Dr. 
Edmond P. Gaines, whom I have mentioned in an earlier chap- 
ter. He had been my father's family physician twenty-eight 
years before and was during my residence in the city my fam- 
ily physician. He had been exceedingly attentive to my moth- 
er and was now just as kind to my wife. He was a true man, 
who never forgot his old friends, no matter what station they 
occupied. Although an aristocrat by birth and family con- 
nection, yet everything human appealed to him. Candid al- 
most to brusqueness, he would tell the truth about any matter 
that involved the welfare of the public. He would say that 
there was danger when he saw signs of approaching epidemics. 
Some of the other doctors who were inclined to hide out the 
danger as long as possible called him "sensational." He had 



268 REMINISCENCES. 

had yellow fever and always remained in the city during epi- 
demics. He was a brave man who could stand in the midst 
of the "pestilence that walketh in darkness" with as much nerve 
as any soldier ever exhibited in facing death on the bloody field 
of war. 

He was a humane man who gave his professional services to 
the poor and helpless as readily as to the rich and influential. 
He was sometimes impatient and irascible, but always full of 
sympathy and tender regard for the distressed. 

I had not seen him since he left Choctaw County, when I 
was a country lad of twelve years. When he learned where I 
came from, all the associations of "Old Choctaw" welled up in 
his mind. When he learned that I had just lost my little boy, 
his warm heart was sensibly moved as he tried to console me, 
not so much by an exhibition of Christian faith as by showing 
me what greater sorrow might have befallen me if the boy had 
lived. He told me that he had lost a darling child years be- 
fore and had felt rebellious over the loss. Then he added with 
emphasis : "I have become entirely reconciled, for worse things 
can come to us than the death of our children." He did not 
explain; but I learned, in the language of another friend, "Not 
our dead children, but the living, give us the greatest trouble." 

He had had tuberculosis in his earlier years. As a result 
he had lost one lung entirely, but had cured the disease and 
lived to do many years of hard work as a practitioner and as 
a lecturer in the medical college. The loss of one lung put 
double duty on the other and caused it to become abnormally 
large. This gave him a one-sided appearance. With all of 
his physical one-sidedness and other imperfections, he was a 
noble specimen of manhood and one of the best friends I had 
in Mobile. Several of the best friends I have ever had have 
taught me the force of these two sayings, *'Humanuin est er- 
rare" ("It is human to err"), and, "Humani nihil a me alien- 
um" ("Nothing human is devoid of interest to me"). 

I come now to a man who, though afflicted with a permanent 
physical infirmity like St. Paul, was as free from imperfection 
of character as any man I have ever known. 



REMINISCENCES. 269 

Dr. Jefferson Hamilton. 

While I was teaching at Mount Sterling, in 1865-66, I be- 
came acquainted with Dr. Jefferson Hamilton, who was then 
stationed in one of the Churches in Mobile. Through the in- 
fluence of a mutual friend he sent me a pupil over whom he 
exercised some kind of guardianship. So pleased was he with 
the outcome of this student that he sent me his son several 
years later and became my friend to the end of his life. He 
and Dr. J. W. Rush had more to do with my making the only 
three moves I have ever made than any other two men. They 
were the cause of my being elected to the male school in Sum- 
merfield in 1866. They were the principal movers in my going 
to Mobile in 1874. Dr. Rush, as will appear on a later page, 
was a member of the Board of Trustees that induced me to go 
to Tuskegee in 1876. I had something more than dry respect 
for these godly men, whose lives were devoted to the better- 
ment of the world. 

Dr. Hamilton was another man who had a good inheritance. 
Silver and gold he had none beyond a bare living, but in men- 
tal and spiritual inheritance he was rich. He was a native of 
Massachusetts, that State which has been said to have done 
more in promoting the educational and literary life of this 
country than any other State in the Union. He was born at 
Brookfield, Worcester County, the birthplace at a later date of 
Professor George Frederick Mellen, who has been mentioned 
in a former chapter. Dr. Hamilton was born August 20, 1805, 
of deeply pious parents, who were Methodists after the strict 
methodical practices that gave rise to the name of the denom- 
ination. He grew up under the severe regimen and rigorous 
conditions of a New England farm where the people had to 
struggle hard to get a living out of its rocky soil. This stren- 
uous outdoor life corresponded well with the strict discipline 
of the followers of John Wesley in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century. 

His father was one of those New England Democrats who 
have exhibited a strength of conviction and a tenacity of pur- 
pose unsurpassed by any citizens in our republic. Though 



270 REMINISCENCES. 

bearing the surname of Alexander Hamilton, the great leader 
of the Federalist party, Mr. Hamilton followed his own con- 
victions and aligned himself with the school of the author of 
the Declaration of Independence and founder of the Demo- 
cratic party, notwithstanding the Federalist party had the most 
powerful leaders in New England at that time. As a mark of 
his political convictions he named his son Jefferson, who in- 
herited all the firmness and tenacity of his father. 

His mother was one of the holiest women of her generation. 
Her tender hands smoothed the pillow of the invalid ; her 
cheerful face brought sunshine to the homes of sorrow; her 
earnest prayers renewed the hopes of those on the brink of 
despair. Her son was her companion on these visits of mercy 
as well as at the house of God. 

When he was converted at the age of twenty, he at once 
caught the inspiration of the great religious movement started 
by John Wesley in England and continued in New England by 
Jesse Lee, of Virginia. Dr. Hamilton resembled Mr. Wesley 
in quality of metal and tenacity of purpose. 

He did not do what so many young men have done, rush 
into the ministry before he was ready. He sought the best 
preparation within his reach. He went to Wilbraham Acade- 
my and placed himself under the direction of that most saintly 
man. Dr. Wilbur Fisk, for whom he always entertained the 
greatest reverence. Dr. Fisk had twice declined the office of 
bishop that he might the more fully devote his time to preach- 
ing and training young men for the ministry. Like his model, 
Dr. Hamilton gave his life to preaching and building up an 
intelligent and efficient ministry. 

He joined the New England Conference in 1831, serving 
different appointments till his second year in Bromfield Street 
Church, Boston, when he had a severe attack of measles, which 
left him with an asthmatic trouble which continued to the end 
of his life. His physician advised him to go to a southern 
climate. In 1837 he came to Alabama, where, with the ex- 
ception of two years in New Orleans, he continued to the end 
of his life, in 1874. 



REMINISCENCES. 2yi 

In the Alabama Conference he was the leader among such 
men as Thomas W. Dorman, A. H. Mitchell, P. P. Neely, E. 
Baldwin, Thomas O. Summers, O. R. Blue, R. K. Hargrove, 
Allen S. Andrews, Mark S. Andrews, Edward Wadsworth, 
and W. A. McCarty. One of his confreres said : "He did more 
than any other man in molding the character of the preachers 
and in fixing the high standard of faith and usefulness." In 
the words of Bishop Fitzgerald: "It would be hard to pack 
more nervous energy, common sense, keen sensibility, brain 
power, and spiritual fervor into one man's make-up than was 
found in this thin, pale-faced preacher, who was vital all over 
and through and through." Most men with such will power 
and such energies are inclined to be harsh and dictatorial, but 
not so with Dr. Hamilton, He was one of the most lovable 
and affable men I have ever known. His bodily infirmity never 
beclouded his cheerfulness or ruffled his temper. He was al- 
ways the same courteous Christian gentleman. 

Though of slight physique, never weighing more than one 
hundred and twenty pounds, he was a man of commanding 
presence, whose noble head and fine features, lighted up with 
brilliant eyes, elicited respect and good will. With perfect self- 
command and graceful movements, he was admirable in per- 
forming public ceremonies. At my marriage to Miss Fredonia 
A. Taylor he was the officiating minister. As we stood before 
him without book in hand his appropriate ceremony and oppor- 
tune prayer were singularly beautiful. After the salutations, 
I handed him a twenty-dollar bill. Two years afterwards, 
when he was attending the commencement in Summerfield, I 
handed him another twenty-dollar bill, remarking as I did so : 
"This is the second installment on my marriage fee." With 
the most pleasant expression of surprise he said : "You must 
think I did you a good job. This is very complimentary to 
the madam." 

Although he came near dying three times with yellow fever, 
nothing could induce him to leave the city during an epidemic. 
Sometimes he was the only pastor left to visit the sick and 



2y2 REMINISCENCES. 

bury the dead of all classes. He would have no pay from 
other Churches for his services. 

He believed that the South was right during the Civil War. 
For its success he prayed. Its defeat was a disappointment to 
him, but he did not stake his religious faith upon the result of 
a conflict waged with carnal weapons. When the war ended 
and he found himself on the losing side, "he accepted the re- 
sult, free from the sycophancy of the post-bellum renegade on 
the one hand or stupid factiousness and hopeless desperation 
on the other." His faith was too deep-rooted and steadfast 
to be overthrown by any temporal calamity. While he was a 
loyal citizen to the government under which he lived, his citi- 
zenship was in heaven. He did a great work during the trou- 
blous period of Reconstruction by calling the thoughts of the 
people to the foundation of true religion. His efforts, along 
with the efforts of other men of like spirit, were the cause of 
the wonderful growth of the Church after the war. 

Dr. Hamilton died at Opelika during the Conference of 
1874, three months after I went to Mobile. He was the prime 
mover in the district school enterprise. After his death the 
committee manifested little interest in the matter. No suitable 
buildings were ever erected, and the enterprise failed of real- 
ization. 

While I got only a bare living out of the school, and we had 
a hard time owing to my wife's poor health and our limited 
means, I have never regretted going to Mobile. My two years' 
residence there gave me a wider acquaintance with various 
classes of people and some valuable experience In the strug- 
gles of life. One valuable lesson was to collect as I went and 
to pay as I went. The panic of 1873 and the stringency of the 
succeeding years had burned out the credit system for the time 
being. 

I mention here what my noble-hearted wife's modesty would 
suppress. Two small sums of money, one from an uncle's 
estate In Scotland and one from her father's estate, came to 
her during our hard experience in Mobile. She generously 
spent most of this for the benefit of myself and of my children, 



REMINISCENCES. 272, 

her step-children, A part of it went to put a tombstone over 
the grave of my dear Johnnie. When I protested against her 
using her money so freely for my benefit, she replied : "What- 
ever is mine is yours." This was the spirit of the woman. 

While I was not satisfied with the results of my work in 
Mobile, I had some evidence that my efforts were appreciated. 
When inquiry was made among some of my leading patrons 
whether I would do for the Alabama Conference Female Col- 
lege, they said: "Yes; he will do for any place." This was 
reported to me by Dr. W. A. McCarty, 

I had in my school in Mobile as long as his father was sta- 
tioned in the city Charles A. Rush, who has risen to promi- 
nence as a preacher in the Alabama Conference and who is now 
President of the Southern University. His wife, Mrs. Rosa- 
line Roebuck Rush, I graduated in 1884. President Rush and 
wife are not the only couple of fine people with whose educa- 
tion I have had something to do. 

Dawn of a Brighter Day for the South. 

I am not writing a history of Alabama or of the period of 
Reconstruction, but I have some very vivid recollections of the 
years from 1865 to 1877. Brown says in his history of the 
State : 

Alabama was for several years subject to the worst kind of government 
which Americans have ever had to submit to; and many citizens, despair- 
ing of any decent form of government, began to leave for other States and 
for foreign countries. Those who remained were forced to stand helpless 
for a time, while strange white men under the protection of the military 
power of the government parceled out among themselves the posts of honor. 

All this I remember most vividly. I have refrained from 
recording anything that will perpetuate bitterness, but I would 
not be true to my recollection if I should ignore all memory 
of those dark days drawn out Into dreary years. I take pleas- 
ure In recording the recollections of the years 1875, 1876, and 
1877, years that began to bring hope to the people of Alabama. 
The orgies of misrule had lasted as long as humanity could 
endure them. The Southern people had stood the ordeal till 
18 



274 REMINISCENCES. 

patience was at the breaking point. The Northern people were 
beginning to awake to some sense of the enormity of such mis- 
rule, as was indicated by the Democratic majority in the Pres- 
idential election of 1876. Though President Rutherford B. 
Hayes was placed in the Presidency by methods which are now 
generally considered unlawful, he proved to be a friend to the 
South. He was anxious to see better governments in the re- 
constructed States. He withdrew the army and left the State 
governments to be conducted by those who alone had intelli- 
gence and patriotism enough to rescue society from disaster. 

The three most striking results of the war were the extinc- 
tion of slavery, the settlement of the question of secession, and 
an increased power in the general government. After fifty 
years of observation and experience as a Southern man, I am 
convinced that all these results have been best for the South. 

From my boyhood I never had any sympathy with slavery 
as an institution. While it had many amiable features, I do 
not believe that it was built on a foundation of righteousness 
that can stand the test of advancing Christian civilization. 

As to secession, I always thought that we had the right to 
secede, considering the clearly expressed conditions under 
which the original thirteen States went into the Union ; but, 
as I stated in Chapters XH. and XHI, I doubted the wisdom 
of secession in 1861. 

As to the necessity for a strong central government, I am 
satisfied that we need a stronger national government than we 
ever could have made of the Southern Confederacy. With the 
States supreme, they would have been in danger of warring 
among themselves and liable to fall a prey to some foreign 
power, the fate that befell the ancient Grecian States. Yet 
to make the Central government so strong as to ignore the 
local State governments would pave the way to monarchy. 
Let the States exercise all their original powers that do not 
contravene the general good. Let the National government 
have entire control of everything outside of the local interests 
of the States, thus securing a workable plan between the ex- 
tremes of absolute States' rights and unlimited centralization. 



REMINISCENCES. 275 

These issues being settled, we are determined to make the 
most of the Southern States as integral parts of the United 
States government which our fathers had so large a share in 
forming. In the language of Senator B. H. Hill : "Let us turn 
our backs upon the past; and let it be said in the future that 
he is the greatest patriot, the truest patriot, the noblest patriot 
who shall do the most to repair the wrongs of the past and 
promote the glories of the future." 

The noble, self-sacrificing conduct of General Lee stands out 
against the dark background of the past like the rainbow of 
promise emblazoned on the vanishing storm cloud. During the 
war, when animosities were inflamed to an extreme degree, a 
plan was laid before Jefferson Davis to assassinate certain 
Northern leaders. He promptly repelled the suggestion, say- 
ing: "The laws of war and morality, as well as Christian prin- 
ciples and sound policy, forbid the use of such means of punish- 
ing even the atrocities of the enemy." The high-souled senti- 
ment expressed in these words will constitute a brighter halo 
around his name than can ever be formed around the name of 
any man whose preeminence is gained by means of "blood 
and iron"; and his last self-effacing words, like the fabled 
song of the dying swan, will more and more touch the heart 
of humanity as passion and prejudice melt away in the stream 
of time. 

Last Speech of Jefferson Davis. 

Here, as reported, is the last speech of Jefferson Davis, 
delivered at a meeting near Beauvoir, Mississippi, in 1888: 

My Friends: The faces I see before me are those of young men — men 
in whose hands the destinies of our Southland lie. For love of her I break 
my silence to speak to you a few words of admonition. The past is dead. 
Let it bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations. Before you lies the 
future — a future of golden promises, a future full of recompense for hon- 
orable endeavor, a future of expanding glory before which all the world 
shall stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside rancor, all bitter 
sectional feeling, and take your places in the ranks of those who will bring 
about a consummation devoutly to be wished. 

Mr. Roosevelt, just before he retired from the Presidency, 
had the courage and the magnanimity to order the name of 



2y(y REMINISCENCES. 

Jefferson Davis restored on Cabin John Bridge. It took Eng- 
land two hundred and thirty-eight years to restore the name of 
Ohver Cromwell in Westminster Abbey. It has not taken 
this country quite fifty years to restore the name of Jefferson 
Davis on Cabin John Bridge, and it will not take the half of 
two hundred and thirty-eight years to restore it to its proper 
place in history. 

In the eloquent words of Bishop Galloway: "His virtues 
will grow brighter and his name be writ larger with each pass- 
ing century. Nothing need cover his high fame but heaven, 
no pyramid set off his memories but the eternal substance of 
his greatness." 




«>4!es.- 





JOHN MASSEY 
AGE 42 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Move to Tuskegee — Lease of the College for Five Years — History of the 
College — Dr. Andrew A. Lipscomb — Dr. G. W. F. Price — Dr. Henry D. 
Moore. 

ABOUT January i, 1876, I was asked to take the presi- 
dency of the college at Tuskegee. At first I declined to 
consider the question. Later in the year I was induced by Df. 
Wadsworth and Dr. McCarty to investigate the merits of the 
place, and in June I went to Tuskegee by special invitation to 
meet the Board of Trustees. The result of the meeting was 
that I accepted the proposition of the Board to lease the college 
for a period of five years on the conditions that the Board was 
to assume no responsibility in the management, either finan- 
cial or disciplinary, and that I was to be responsible for the 
employment of teachers, for the discipline of the school, for 
keeping the buildings in repair, and for the entire current ex- 
penses. If the school should not pay expenses, the loss was to 
be mine. If there should be anything left after meeting all 
expenses, the surplus should be mine. 

The Board of Trustees with whom I made my contract em- 
braced the following: Gov. R. F. Ligon, President, Dr. W. J. 
Gautier, Secretary, Mr. J. C. Smith, all of Tuskegee; Rev. 
W. A. McCarty, D.D., Rev. W. M. Motley, Rev. T. J. Rut- 
ledge, Rev. J. W. Rush, D.D,, all members of the Conference. 
These were all true men ; men that could be trusted with the 
most sacred things of life ; honest men who never deceived me. 
I always knew where they stood on any question connected 
with the college. I remained in my place years after they had 
gone into the "country from whose bourne no traveler re- 
turns," but I always felt that their candid spirits were behold- 
ing me from their place within the veil and making me stronger 
in the performance of duty. It is an honor to have been asso- 
ciated with such men. 

In addition to these deceased trustees whom I have men- 



278 REMINISCENCES. 

tioned, I think it right to mention two others who came into 
the Board later and who have joined "the innumerable cara- 
van" — C. M. Howard and James E, Cobb. 

Dr. Howard was for a number of years Secretary of the 
Board. He was a man who never deviated from the right as 
he saw it, a man strong in his attachments and capable of 
genuine friendships. There is something peculiarly touching 
in my recollection of him. A few hours before his death he 
sent for me and requested me to write his will, a tribute to 
our friendship worthy of mention on personal grounds as well 
as on account of his services to the college. He was a true 
man "without fear and without reproach." 

Judge James E. Cobb was for many years a trustee. As one 
of the prominent men of Alabama he deserves special mention 
in connection with the history of the college. He was born in 
Thomaston, Georgia, on October 5, 1835, and died in Las 
Vegas, New Mexico, June 2, 1903. 

He was a graduate of Emory College in the class with the 
famous missionary to China, Dr. Young J. Allen. After his 
graduation he taught school at Fort Valley, Georgia, studied 
law under Hon. T. W. Goode, and emigrated to Texas. Upon 
the breaking out of the war he enlisted as a private in the Fifth 
Texas Regiment, served in the Army of Northern Virginia, 
was promoted to second lieutenant, then to first lieutenant, 
gradually rising in rank till the battle of Gettysburg, when he 
was taken prisoner July 2, 1863, and kept confined in different 
forts till after the close of the war. 

Soon after the surrender he settled in Tuskegee and engaged 
in the practice of law till he was elected Judge of the Fifth 
Judicial Circuit. He held this position twelve years and made 
the reputation of being one of the best judges in the State. He 
had a very fine legal mind that comprehended the principles of 
law and went to the bottom of every case that came under his 
jurisdiction. Very few of his decisions were ever reversed. 
He was nominated for Congress in the Fifth Congressional 
District and elected five times in succession. As an able judge 
and an incorruptible statesman he was honored by his State 



REMINISCENCES. 279 

and by the Nation ; but, above all these mere accidents of life, 
he was a man of sterling character. 

Something of his cast of spirit was reflected in the mag- 
nanimous proffer of two of his sisters, Mrs. R. H. Wood and 
Mrs. W. S. Jackson, on one occasion when we were threatened 
with an epidemic of measles in the college. These self-sacri- 
ficing women came forward and offered to take the sick girls 
to their homes and nurse them. This generous offer has all 
the more appealed to my grateful admiration, as my wife was 
sick and not able to undergo the strain of caring for the sick 
girls. It is a fine thing to have such temper in one's blood and 
such tone in one's spirit. 

History of the College. 

I consider it appropriate to give a brief history of the in- 
stitution up to the time I undertook its administration in 1876. 
The facts embraced in this history I gathered mainly from Dr. 
J. W. Rush, Dr. Mark S. Andrews, Gov. R. F. Ligon, Dr. W. 
J. Gautier, Dr. J. W. Hunter, Mr. J. C. Smith, and other 
citizens of Tuskegee. 

Tuskegee was early in its history noted for the intelligence 
and enterprise of its citizens. Their public spirit had begun 
to be manifested in the forties when they established a military 
school for boys, while Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz was conduct- 
ing a good school for girls in the town. In 1848 the Baptists 
established a college for girls, which was very flourishing dur- 
ing the next fifteen years. 

In 1853 Mrs. Judge Alexander conceived the idea of found- 
ing another college for girls. This was taken up by Rev. C. 
C. Gillespie, the pastor of the Methodist Church; but the rais- 
ing of funds for the enterprise devolved upon Rev. Mark S. 
Andrews, a young preacher of the Alabama Conference. 

Mr. Andrews canvassed East Alabama in its behalf. In 
the year 1854 the college was chartered by the Legislature of 
Alabama under the name of Tuskegee Female College. By 
the terms expressed in this charter the title to the property and 
the administration of the college were vested in a Board of 



28o REMINISCENCES, 

Trustees named in the charter and to be continued by their 
successors. Ten acres of land were purchased from Mr. Wil- 
Ham Hora for the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars. 

The building was planned by an architect in New York. 
His plan was an illustration of the infeasibility of architectural 
ideas modeled on beauty and display rather than on practical 
use. I doubt if any school building should ever be erected 
without the approval of some one who has had experience in 
conducting a school of the kind contemplated. The plan re- 
quired five stories, including the basement, in which were lo- 
cated the dining room and most of the recitation rooms. The 
majority of the dormitories were on the upper floor. This ar- 
rangement required too much climbing of steps and increased 
the danger f rom. fire, especially when the rooms were warmed 
by wood fires. There was no necessity for making the building 
so high, as there were ample grounds. The idea was that a 
tall building would make a greater display. 

The corner stone was laid on February ii, 1855, by Hon. 
Henry W. Hilliard, who has been mentioned in connection 
with Hilliard's Legion. The building was completed during 
the year following at a cost of sixty thousand dollars ; and on 
February 11, 1856, the college was organized and began its 
work, which continued for fifty-three years. 

Dr. a. a. Lipscomb. 

The first President was Rev. Andrew A. Lipscomb, D.D., 
LL.D. He was a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, 
who had conducted a successful girls' school in Montgomery 
in the early fifties. He was a man of exceedingly fine taste 
and literary culture and an eloquent preacher of fascinating 
style. 

I learned from Rev. J. W. Rush that he had extraordinary 
power in inspiring his pupils with the love of the beautiful. 
During his administration there was set on foot an educational 
movement of unique and elevated order in which delicate taste 
and refined criticism found a higher development than had 
hitherto been attempted in this State. 



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REMINISCENCES. 281 

The Doctor had some of the elements of a great teacher. 
He ruled altogether by moral suasion, which is a fine method 
so long as it effectively persuades. His fine sense and fasci- 
nating personality made this method of discipline effective. 

Dr. Lipscomb's reputation had gone beyond Alabama. Col. 
W. F. Foster, a prominent attorney in Tuskegee, told me that 
Hon. Robert Toombs and Bishop George F. Pierce came 
to Tuskegee to solicit his consent to go to the University of 
Georgia. As a result of the visit of these distinguished gentle- 
men he retired from the college in Tuskegee in 1859 and ac- 
cepted the presidency of the University of Georgia. After 
serving there a number of years, he was induced by Bishop 
McTyeire to go to Vanderbilt University as Professor of Eng- 
lish Literature, which position he filled till age and feebleness 
necessitated his retirement from active work. 

Some years after I came to Tuskegee I invited him to preach 
the commencement sermon. In a very affectionate letter he 
replied expressing his interest in the college and his regrets at 
not being able to perform the service. He was a man of lovely 
spirit. 

On the retirement of Dr. Lipscomb the college was burdened 
with debt. For immediate relief the Board borrowed five thou- 
sand dollars from the Alabama Conference out of some money 
known as the Thompson Fund. This Thompson Fund was a 
donation from a Mrs. Thompson, who sometime in the fifties 
had left by will to the Alabama Conference sixteen thousand 
dollars, the interest of which was to be used in paying the 
board of preachers' daughters in the colleges owned by the 
Conference. Centenary College, at Summerfield, got seven 
thousand dollars of this money, Tuscaloosa Female College 
four thousand dollars, and Tuskegee Female College five thou- 
sand dollars, for which the Conference took a mortgage on 
the property. 

Dr. George W. F, Price. 

Rev. George W. F. Price was chosen as the successor to 
Dr. Lipscomb. His boyhood had been spent in Tuskegee. 
Mr. J. C. Smith, who was an intimate friend of his boyhood, 



282 REMINISCENCES. 

gave me some account of his fine, genial qualities and his 
fondness for outdoor sports. He said that he and young Price 
used to go barefooted along the branches around Tuskegee 
and that he could always tell George's tracks wherever seen by 
the peculiar shape which his square-toed foot left on the sand. 
George was destined to leave a more durable impress on his 
generation than he had left on the sands around Tuskegee. 
His influence will be seen in the lives of his pupils long after 
all physical traces of him have vanished from the earth. 

After being prepared for college in the home school along 
with W. M. Motley and J. W. Rush, who went to Emory 
College, young Price went to the University of Alabama and 
paid his way by ringing the college bell which called the stu- 
dents to chapel and recitations. 

After graduating he went into the ministry and was noted 
for a style of eloquence characterized by a most refined imag- 
ination and delicate taste. He had to locate early on account 
of a bronchial trouble which prevented the constant use of his 
voice in public speaking. 

He was one of the teachers in the college under Dr. Lip- 
scomb and had just the kind of bright, receptive mind to reap 
great benefit from association with so able and cultivated a 
man. This association gave him excellent preparation for the 
presidency of the college. He was a better financier than his 
predecessor. He succeeded in reducing the debt on the col- 
lege during his first years; but on account of the embarrass- 
ment caused by the war the Board sold the property in 1862 
to Rev. Jesse Wood, who had inherited some money with 
which it was hoped that he could relieve the critical situation. 
After one year, Mr. Wood sold the property in 1863 to Dr. 
C. D. Elliott, who had been successful in conducting a girls' 
school in Nashville, Tennessee, and who had come to Alabama 
as a refugee. As he was an experienced man in conducting 
such schools, his purchase of the property was thought to be a 
good thing for all parties ; but, owing to the stress of the war 
and lack of money that had any purchasing power, the college 
was not a success under his administration. 



REMINISCENCES. 283 

I saw Dr. Elliott in Tuscaloosa in the summer of 1864. He 
was on a lecture tour in quest of funds, or rather tax-in-kind, 
for the relief of disabled Confederate soldiers and their fam- 
ilies. He evidently could not have been doing much with the 
school, as it was not engaging his attention. Soon after the 
surrender he returned to Nashville. He left the college in 
Tuskegee with most of the old debts hanging over it. The 
Board of Trustees still had the elephant on their hands. They 
put Dr. Price back into the presidency, where he remained till 
the close of the session in 1872. He had been the leading 
spirit in the school during the administrations of Mr. Wood 
and Dr. Elliott. 

I heard him make a speech before the Alabama Conference 
in 1 87 1 in which he tried to induce the Conference to make 
some arrangement for the relief of the college. This was to 
do what they consented to do the next year — namely, to buy 
the property and run it as a Church school — but they were not 
yet ready to take it on their hands. 

At the close of the session of 1872 Dr. Price went to Hunts- 
ville, Alabama, and took charge of a girls' school in that town. 
While he was at Huntsville I invited him to preach the com- 
mencement sermon in 1878 as a compliment to one of my 
honored predecessors. When it was announced that Dr. Price 
would preach the commencement sermon. Uncle Isaac Hill 
(as he was cahed), an uncle of Ben Hill, of Georgia, noted for 
his blunt jokes, said to me : "I understand that you have done 
a very foolish thing." I answered : "What foolish thing have I 
done?" "Why," said he, "I understand that you have invited 
George Price to preach to the college." "Why?" said I. 
Isn't he a nice man?" "Yes," said Uncle Isaac, wishing to 
rub me hard, "he is too nice. He will preach such a nice ser- 
mon that he will take all your girls away from you." "Well," 
I replied, "if my school has not enough merit in it to stand a 
fine sermon from Dr. Price, let it go down." Dr. Price came 
and preached a most elegant sermon from the text, "The en- 
trance of thy words giveth light," as brilliant as the text could 



284 REMINISCENCES. 

suggest. He was not canvassing for pupils. He was too 
noble a man for such political strategy. 

After remaining several years at Huntsville, he went to 
Nashville and established the Nashville College for Young 
Ladies, known as Price's College, which had a prosperous ca- 
reer for a number of years. Dr. Price died some years ago 
highly respected for his brilliant talents and lovable qualities. 

The trustees of Tuskegee Female College in 1872 were now 
getting tired of their financial responsibility. They were being 
threatened with lawsuits for the collection of debts against the 
college property. They persuaded the Conference to do what 
Dr. Price had suggested the year before, to foreclose their 
mortgage on the property, settle with the other claimants, and 
run the college as a Church school. All parties agreed to this 
arrangement; and at the session of the Legislature in 1872-73 
the charter was renewed, the name of the college was changed 
from Tuskegee Female College to Alabama Conference Female 
College, and a Board of seven trustees was named. This was 
the Board I made my contract with in 1876. The Conference, 
through this new Board, settled up all the outstanding debts 
to the amount of eight thousand dollars. Their mortgage was 
five thousand dollars; and they had to make repairs on the 
building to the amount of one thousand dollars, making the 
property cost them up to 1872-73 fourteen thousand dollars. 

Dr. Henry D. Moore. 

After the resignation of Dr. Price in 1872, Rev. Henry 
D. Moore, from Georgia, was elected President. He was a 
graduate of The Citadel, a military school in Charleston, South 
Carolina. I met him first in the summer of 1872 at two or 
three District Conferences while I was in charge of the male 
school in Summerfield. He was a man of pleasant address, 
captivating voice, and incisive delivery, that made him a very 
effective speaker. I was very much pleased with one of his 
sermons from Jeremiah xii. 5 : "If thou hast run with the foot- 
men, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend 
with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trust- 



REMINISCENCES. 285 

edst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the sweUing 
of Jordan?" 

Mr. Moore took the college at a very unpropitious time. 
The financial panic came in 1873. His patronage was below 
the numbers in past years, and his collections were poor. He 
was further embarrassed by the sickness and death of his 
wife. In the face of these troubles, with no reserve capital to 
meet expenses that were imperative, his success was an impos- 
sibility. He retired from the college at the Conference in 
December, 1875, somewhat embarrassed with debt. The Con- 
ference sent him to the Marianna District, considered at that 
time a hard appointment. He sustained himself well, brought 
up his district in fine style, and, be it said to his credit, in a 
year or two he paid off all he owed. I learned some of this 
inside history from Mr. J. C. Smith, who was his friend 
through all his troubles. He was a fine pastor and filled a 
number of the best appointments in the Conference till his 
death, which occurred during his pastorate in Opelika some 
years ago. 

Through the interregnum between the retirement of Mr. 
Moore and' my engagement in the June following Rev. Ev- 
erett Lee Loveless, preacher in charge of the Tuskegee Sta- 
tion, conducted the college, not because he desired the place, 
but because no one else could be found who^ would agree to 
take it in the middle of the year. While Mr. Loveless was a 
fine preacher, the most eloquent man we have had in the sta- 
tion since my connection with it, he was not adapted to school 
work. His tastes were averse to teaching. Putting Shake- 
speare's expression, "I would rather be a dog and bay the 
moon," into jocular form, he said : "I would rather be a pack 
of hounds and bay the solar system than run a female college." 

When I came, everything was at the lowest ebb. The coun- 
try had not rallied from the panic of 1873. The boarding 
department had run down to two girls. There were several 
private schools in the town, one of which had more pupils than 
the college. Except Mr. J. C. Smith, not even the Board of 
Trustees could give much encouragement. Governor Ligon, 



286 REMINISCENCES. 

the President, and Dr. Gautier, the Secretary, were fine, intel- 
ligent gentlemen of the old Southern school. They had been 
through the war and had seen its crushing effects. They had 
just passed through the depressing period of Reconstruction. 
They did not believe that the country ever would come back 
to its normal condition. Mr. Smith was more hopeful. He 
said that the college could be made a good thing if the right 
man could be found to manage it. 

In thinking over the proposition made me by the Board I 
saw that the college was located in a good community, that it 
was surrounded by a good country, that there was no other 
school of the kind nearer than Georgia and West Alabama, 
that there were no public schools outside of the cities, and that 
Professor J. F. Park was conducting a successful boys' school 
in the town. I did not believe that an intelligent people could 
afford to continue without a better school for their girls. I 
believed that the tide would turn toward a better state of 
things, that any improvement in the condition of the country 
would be in favor of the college, and that I could take advan- 
tage of any increase in the patronage to carry it on to greater 
prosperity. The discouraging features of the undertaking 
called out my best efforts. 

The week after I had closed my contract with the trustees I 
attended the commencement in Auburn. I there met the genial 
Dr. George Price. One day in a crowd of men I started to 
address him, but observed that he was in close conversation 
with another gentleman; so I passed by. As soon as he was 
disengaged he came to me, saying: "The gentleman that you 
saw me talking with is Louis T. Wimberly, of Loachapoka. 
He has a daughter to send to college, but I don't think either 
of us will get her. I think he will send her to the Wesleyan. I 
offered to introduce him to you as the new President of the 
college in Tuskegee ; but he declined, saying that he would not 
send to Tuskegee." 

I went to work at once to solicit patronage. I secured two 
fine girls from Auburn. One of them is now the wife of Dr. 
O. C. McGehee, of the Alabama Conference. I went to Fort 



REMINISCENCES. 287 

Deposit; and, through the assistance of Rev. Josiah Barker 
and Miss Mary, his daughter, whom I had engaged as one of 
my teachers, I secured two or three girls from that place. I 
went to Greenville and succeeded in interesting Mr. W, H. 
Flowers and Mr. W. M. Teague and thus secured two splendid 
girls from Greenville. I went to Prattville ; and, through the 
assistance of my friends, Rev. J. W. Rush, the pastor, and Dr. 
S. P. Smith, I secured six girls from that place. So far as 
possible, I attended all the District Conferences held that sum- 
mer. 

About a month after Mr. Wimberly had declined to be in- 
troduced to me I attended the Conference of the Montgomery 
District, held at Auburn, The presiding elder introduced me 
to the Conference as the new President of the college at Tus- 
kegee and gave me an opportunity to present its claims. As it 
had gone down to almost nothing, I did not have much basis 
for a speech except the general subject of education. I made 
the best speech I could on education and wound up by saying 
that I had bound myself to the college for five years, that I 
could not afford to be bound to a dead body for five years, and 
that I was obliged to breathe life into it and make it a vital 
factor in the work of education. As soon as I took my seat 
Mr. Wimberly came forward and introduced himself to me, 
saying that he was much pleased with my speech, that he had 
a daughter to send to college, and that he would send her to 
me. He sent his daughter, and twenty-five years afterwards 
I educated two of her daughters. 

During one of my canvassing trips I met a young preacher 
who had been my pupil several years before. He said : ''I am 
sorry to learn that you are going to change from the boys to 
the girls, I think you are making a mistake. You have great 
influence over boys. It takes a man to manage boys, but any- 
body can manage girls," I did not know then how much truth 
there was in what he said, but during the next thirty-three 
years I learned that girls cannot be managed by "anybody." 
It requires as much to hold their respect and loyalty as it takes 
to hold the respect and loyalty of boys; and without command- 



288 REMINISCENCES. 

ing their respect and good will, one can do nothing with them. 
When I wound up my summer campaign, I had visited twenty- 
one cities and towns, besides many private families, in different 
parts of the country. 

In June my wife had gone from Mobile to Summerfield, 
where she spent several weeks. She came over to Tuskegee in 
August. When she saw the amount of work we had to do 
before we could open school, she was appalled and kept say- 
ing : "Mr. Massey, when are you going to stop traveling and 
help me clean up this place?" I told her that a clean place 
would not be worth much without girls to fill it. I was com- 
pelled to get nearly all my patronage from a distance, as most 
of the girls of Tuskegee were in private schools. 

During the last two or three weeks of the vacation we came 
as near killing ourselves as was possible by work in getting 
ready for the opening. When we opened about the 20th of 
September, nearly all of our girls from a distance came on the 
first train, as many as the little narrow-gauge railroad could 
carry, making the largest pile of trunks that had come to the 
college on one train since the war. This fairly took the breath 
of the townspeople. So far as I had taken time to observe, 
they had treated me with courtesy — they were to refined to do 
otherwise — ^but they had manifested no enthusiasm. They had 
taken it for granted that the college was dead. When I walked 
up the street on the afternoon of our opening, I was greeted by 
smiles of approbation and hearty congratulations on every hand, 
In striking contrast with the coolly polite salutations I had been 
receiving. The Tuskegee people are different from the people 
of any other community I have ever lived in. They are sui 
generis. If they do not like you, they will let you alone. If 
they like you, they are very hearty In their manifestations. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

My First Year's Experience in Teaching Girls— Miss Mary A. Barker — 
Miss Mary Alice Caller— Dr. Mark S. Andrews— Mr. William H. Flow- 
ers—Miss Ella R. Smilie— Miss Mary Belle Dallas— College Sunday 
School— Inquiries Whether I Would Accept Other Places— Colonel D. 
S. Troy's Opinion — Fine Music Department. 

THIS year of 1876-77 was to be my first experience in 
teaching girls in a school planned strictly for girls. I 
had grown up in a family of boys. I had gone to school alto- 
gether with boys, except in Dr. Allen's school. I had studied 
and taught in the Pierce's Springs Academy, composed entirely 
of boys. I had gone to college with young men. No male 
college in the State admitted girls at that time. Ever since 
the surrender I had taught boys and young men. Now I was 
to change entirely to girls. I tried to find out by letter and 
through Miss Mary Barker, who had taught with Dr. Price in 
Tuskegee and also with Professor Vaughn in Franklin, Ten- 
nessee, how these Presidents managed their schools. They 
were both popular and successful and would, I thought, be 
good models. But in planning my work, and especially in 
carrying it on, I found in many cases that I could not go by 
other men's rules. I had to use all the sense I could command 
and was even then at a loss to know what was best to do in 
some instances. I found that my wife, who was only twenty- 
four years old, was wonderfully quick in seeing the way out of 
difficulties and in suggesting intelligent plans. I was fortu- 
nate in having a number of Intelligent and studious young 
ladies who had been well prepared in other schools to form a 
senior class. They gave tone to the work and made discipline 
more easy. 

In the beginning of the year Dr. McCarty said to me : "You 
have been teaching in boys' schools and colleges and have high 
ideals. If you require of the girls what you have been re- 
quiring of the boys, you will kill them." I found after a fair 
trial that I could require as much work of the girls as I had 
19 (289) 



290 REMINISCENCES. 

ever been able to get the boys to do. In fact, I found it easier 
to get them to study. They were more readily influenced 
through personal attachment than I had found boys to be, 
and in matters of taste and facility of expression they were 
superior to boys of the same age and training. In practical 
application of mathematics to business forms I found them 
not so apt as boys. I attributed this to two things : First, they 
are more susceptible to the influence of beauty and are more 
interested in its forms of expression; and, secondly, they do 
not generally grow up in the atmosphere of business, as boys 
do. In a word, the difference in the ability of the sexes is more 
a difference in taste than in natural talent. Neither is superior 
nor inferior. They are different. They are counterparts of 
each other. 

I had an impression that if the school was to succeed it 
must take on a new growth and must do more thorough work 
than had generally been done in girls' schools. The work 
I had seen done by Professor W, J. Vaughn confirmed me in 
this opinion. 

I had a more open field for original work than if I had been 
going into a flourishing school where I would have been con- 
strained to carry on the work that was already in successful 
operation. It is true that I was hampered by limited means. 
While limited means are not usually appreciated, they are 
sometimes the occasions out of which spring our best efforts 
and furnish the condition for the best results for the reason 
that our personality is the main element in the problem. Be- 
ginning this year with small means and limited numbers, I 
had a chance to grow up with the work as it grew. 

Miss Mary A. Barker. 

The teacher who was most helpful this year was Miss Mary 
A. Barker, who was a graduate of Centenary Institute under 
that unusually gifted teacher. President William J. Vaughn. 
She was frail in physique, clear in mind, and as firm in the 
pursuit of right as she saw it as was Fabricius, of whom Pyr- 
rhus said : "You could as easily turn the sun from his course 



REMINISCENCES. 291 

as you could turn Fabricius from the path of rectitude." She 
was also as much imbued with the self-sacrificing spirit of 
Christian work as was Thomas Coke or David Livingstone. 

One of the things she did was to organize a prayer meeting 
among the boarding students, which continued to be held reg- 
ularly every Thursday evening for thirty-three years, often 
embracing every girl and many of the teachers who lived in 
the college. Miss Barker retired from the faculty on account 
of declining health after about ten years' service, but her spirit 
seemed to live in the college long after she had gone to her 
reward. The highest tribute I can pay her is that I never knew 
a more faithful human being. 

We closed the year in the last week of June, 1877, by grad- 
uating eight young ladies. In April, 1913, I was invited to 
attend a meeting of the Birmingham Chapter of the Alumnae 
of the Alabama Conference Female College, consisting of 
about forty memb€rs. This meeting was held in the elegant 
home of Mrs. C. C. Snider, who was Lutie Harris when in 
college. It was a great pleasure to meet with so many of my 
former pupils and to be kindly entertained by Mrs. Mary H. 
Rush Norris, one of my first year's graduates, whom I found 
as bright and cheery as she was in the days of her girlhood 
thirty-seven years before. 

My second year opened with some increase in the boarding 
department and a considerable advance in the number of local 
pupils. There was no public school in the community for many 
years after this. I made it a rule to collect my tuition fees in 
advance from all who were able to pay, but I never excluded 
any girl from the college if her family showed any disposition 
to pay in service or substance that we could use. My wife 
was very tactful in finding out those who were not really able 
to pay in money, and nothing delighted her more than to open 
the way for a worthy girl's education. 

Miss Mary Alice Caller. 

At the beginning of this second year there came into our 
faculty a woman who was prepared to exercise great influence 



292 REMINISCENCES. 

in the work of the college. She had taught with my wife in 
Centenary Institute and had recently been teaching in Marion 
Female Seminary. She was a graduate of Centenary Institute 
under President R. K. Hargrove (afterwards Bishop). She 
was full of plans for the betterment of every enterprise she 
engaged in. She was a student of good literature, especially 
of the Bible. Like Dr. Lipscomb, she was fond of Ruskin and 
everything that embodied good taste. She loved birds and 
flowers and children. She was the best teacher of children I 

ever saw. 

Several years after coming to us she organized the Currer 
Bell and Ad Astra Literary Societies, which have been perpet- 
uated in the Woman's College of Alabama. Hundreds of 
women who were once students in the old Alabama Conference 
Female College have recalled the name of Mary Alice Caller 
before they have finished reading this paragraph. For twenty- 
nine years she was a member of the faculty and would have 
remained to the end if failing health had not forced her retire- 
ment. She died August 2, 1907, mourned by thousands who 
had known and loved her. It is worth while to live such an 
unselfish life as she lived. 

We closed what was pronounced a very successful year in 
the latter part of June, 1878. We opened our third year with a 
larger boarding department and with practically all the girls in 
the neighborhood. I did a considerable part of the teaching 
myself, going over pretty much the same ground year after 
year. This would have become very monotonous if I had had 
only the subjects taught to interest me ; but when I had a new 
crop of pupils every year, with various talents and tempera- 
ments to be studied, I found that I had a field that required the 
use of all the resources I could command. The study of hu- 
man development is the greatest and most inspiring of all 

studies. 

On March 19, 1879, in the college, my daughter Mabelle 
Massey was born. She was baptized by Rev. Josiah Barker 
during the commencement in June, 1879. 

I took charge of her at night when she was only two years 




JOHN MASSEY 
AGE 55 



REMINISCENCES. 293 

old. She was ready to go with me anywhere. She felt per- 
fectly satisfied in my care. She seemed to take the place of 
my dear lost Johnnie, whose devotion to me was singularly 
touching during the most sorrowful period of my life. She 
has always been a loyal child. 

After graduating at home, she took a two-year course in 
Randolph-Macon Woman's College, We were desirous that 
she should accompany her sister to Europe, but she would not 
consent to go when she knew that her mother's health was pre- 
carious. She felt that her services might be needed at home. 
When this contingency actually occurred, she took up and car- 
ried on with remarkable success the work of the home depart- 
ment of the college during the last ten years of my administra- 
tion. May she have the reward promised to the dutiful : "Hon- 
or thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with 
promise, that it may be well with thee" ! 

Soon after the close of my third year in Tuskegee the fol- 
lowing letter from Dr. W. A. Cochrane came to me: 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, July 10, 1879. 

Professor John Massey, A.M., LL.D. — Dear Sir: I have the honor to 
inform you that the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, at 
their late session, conferred on you the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws 
on account of your distinguished merits and learning. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, W. A. Cochrane, 

Secretary of the Board of Trustees. 

I appreciated this all the more because Professors Wyman and 
Vaughn, who had been my teachers, were in the faculty, which, 
as I afterwards learned, had unanimously recommended this 
action to the Board of Trustees. 

So the years ran on, and my five-year contract soon came to 
an end. The trustees expressed themselves as well pleased and 
offered to renew the contract for a second period of five years 
on the same terms. 

In April, 1882, my daughter Ethel was born, a beautiful 
child. In July, 1884, she died. I leave her with my other 
dead in the hands of the Father of Mercies, feeling that all is 
well. 



294 REMINISCENCES. 

While I had made a living, I had been obliged to spend most 
of the income of the school on current expenses and better 
equipment for the boarding and music departments. Some 
years passed before I laid away any money that inured to my 
own benefit. But I do not regret that I spent the money as I 
did. It gave me a firmer hold on my pupils and on the public 
than if I had tried to be too rigidly economical. There is such 
a thing as "killing the hen to get the golden eggj' 

Dr. Mark S. Andrews. 

During my second period Rev. T. J. Rutledge died; and, 
at my suggestion. Dr. Mark S. Andrews was chosen by the 
Conference to fill the vacancy in the Board of Trustees. I 
had no better friend in the Board to the day of his death. On 
the day of my twenty-first commencement, the last he ever 
attended, I asked him to make the opening prayer on com- 
mencement day. I never heard a better prayer on any public 
occasion. It was his last visit to the college. He died during 
the next spring. I have always been glad that I suggested him 
as a suitable man for a place on the Board. This honor was 
due him, as he had been the agent who had raised the money 
for the foundation of the college. 

Each year we had an increase in the boarding department 
until we were beginning to be very much in need of space for 
dormitory and practice rooms. I had a piano placed in every 
nook and corner and in some cases in the bedrooms. It seemed 
that the time was near at hand when we would be compelled to 
have more room. The Board of Trustees had no money. I 
had little and did not deem it wise to spend all I had on prop- 
erty that did not belong to me. 

About this time I had ofi'ers to go to other colleges. The 
Board of Trustees seemed anxious that I should stay in Tus- 
kegee and urged the Conference to raise some money for the 
enlargement of the music and boarding departments. At the 
session held in Union Springs in December, 1886, they re- 
solved to spend on the college four thousand dollars out of 
some Mobile County bonds which the Conference owned. I 



REMINISCENCES. 295 

succeeded in making a few small collections to supplement this 
fund. The largest was a carload of lumber from Mr. W. H. 
Flowers, valued at two hundred and fifty dollars. 

Mr. William H. Flowers. 

This donation was only one illustration of his liberal spirit. 
While I was attending a District Conference at Boiling, the 
home of Mr. Flowers, I made an appeal in behalf of girls in 
limited circumstances. As we walked out of the church he 
said : "I approve your plan of helping the needy. I will re- 
member you." Years passed. Mr. Flowers went to his re- 
ward. But he had not forgotten his promise. He left in his 
will property which he thought would be worth five thousand 
dollars. Through some insecurity in the investment of the 
property, out of which he directed the donation to be made, it 
yielded only one thousand dollars. He designated John J. 
Flowers, W. M. Motley, and John Massey as the trustees of 
this fund, directing us to invest it and use the income in assist- 
ing indigent girls in their education. This Board of Trust is 
self-perpetuating. Since this money has come into our hands 
we have used the income according to his direction. His works 
are thus following him. 

Without the advantages of a liberal education, Mr. Flowers 
was a man of fine native intelligence, sound judgment, un- 
swerving integrity, "diligent in business, serving the Lord" in 
soul and in substance. For many years he was the manager of 
the Milner, Caldwell, and Flowers Lumber Company, which he 
conducted with marked success. When he grew old and, as 
he thought, too feeble to attend to the business efficiently, he 
offered his resignation. The company declined to accept it. 
Dr. Caldwell, the leading member of the firm, said, 'T would 
rather have Mr. Flowers's old coat hanging up in the mill than 
to have any other man superintendent," so much confidence 
had all the mill people, both stockholders and laborers, in the 
efficiency, justice, and fairness of Mr. Flowers. 

He was a noble patriarch. He reared a large family of 
excellent people, who are perpetuating his splendid qualities. 



296 REMINISCENCES. 

I had the honor of educating his youngest daughter and eleven 
of his granddaughters, a worthy company of elect ladies. 

In the vacation of 1887 we built what was known as the 
Music Hall, which contained the main study hall, the Presi- 
dent's office, and enough music rooms for that time. This 
building gave us much-needed relief in our work. In addition 
to this building, I cut up the old study hall into dormitory 
rooms and painted the main building inside and out, from tow- 
er to basement. 

As I was nearing the completion of this renovation Dr. W. 
C. McCoy, who was then the agent of the Southern University,, 
paid a visit to his daughter, who was a student in the college. 
In looking over what I had done he remarked in his deep, 
sonorous voice : "This is beautiful. It is magnificent. But you 
are only cultivating evanescent flowers in teaching these girls. 
You ought to be in the Southern University cultivating sturdy 
oaks that would stand through the decades." That was a very 
pretty speech, and I appreciated his complimentary estimate of 
my ability; but his opinion was different from that of the 
psalmist who prayed "that our sons may be as plants grown 
up in their youth ; that our daughters may be as corner stones, 
polished after the similitude of a palace," plainly indicating 
that the conservative, enduring forces in society are to be found 
in woman's influence in home life. I have often thought of 
the Doctor's remark, but have never regretted that I changed 
my sphere of work from the business of educating men to that 
of educating women. 

The improvements I made on the college property in 1887 
amounted to about two thousand dollars more than the Con- 
ference gave to the institution. Most of this I paid out of the 
proceeds of the school. With the purchase and improvement 
of the property at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars up to 
1873 3"<3 the four thousand dollars in 1886, it had now cost 
the Conference eighteen thousand dollars. Within the next 
two years we filled all our available space and opened in 1889 
with about twenty-five more boarding pupils than we could 
accommodate. 



REMINISCENCES. 297 

It so happened that the Hora property, consisting of a large 
two-story residence and fifteen acres of land adjoining the 
college lot, was on the market. We bought it at twenty-five 
hundred dollars, which Rev. John G. Motley raised in small 
sums throughout the Conference during the next two years. 
I paid out of the proceeds of the school the expenses of re- 
pairing the building and of fitting up the premises. This Hora 
place gave us room for about thirty more boarding pupils. 

On a former page mention has been made of two teachers 
who contributed to the early success of the school. For long- 
continued service and work done outside of the classrooms, 
several others deserve special mention. 

Miss Ella R. Smilie. 

Miss Smilie came to the college in 1880, when she was only 
twelve years of age, and remained till she was graduated in 
the classical course in 1886. She then taught awhile in coun- 
try schools and returned to the college as assistant teacher and 
completed the Excelsior Course in 1893. She afterwards took 
several postgraduate courses elsewhere and grew into an un- 
usually fine character full of energy, good cheer, and religious 
zeal. During the years she taught with us she superintended 
the Missionary Society and was the leading spirit in the col- 
lege devotional meetings. In 1899 she was married to Rev. 
Thomas F. Sessions, a member of one of the Texas Confer- 
ences. Wherever Mrs. Sessions goes she is the inspiration of 
the community in every good work. 

Miss Mary Belle Dallas. 

Miss Dallas, a niece of Mrs. Massey, was a student in the 
college from the beginning of our first year. She was gradu- 
ated in the classical course in 1880 and in the Excelsior Course 
in 1884. She took additional courses in French and literature 
in New York. She became one of the best-read teachers in 
classic literature we ever had in the faculty and is one of the 
most excellent literary critics I know. She was a member of 



298 REMINISCENCES. 

the faculty for twenty-eight years and was an associate of 
Miss Caller in the development of the literary societies. 

Upon the resignation of Miss Smilie, in 1899, Miss Dallas 
took charge of the missionary work. Her religious influence 
over the girls was very stimulating. Besides aiding them in 
their devotional meetings, she introduced a study course in the 
Missionary Society and inspired so much interest in the cause 
that the College Society became the banner society of the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in the Alabama Confer- 
ence, They supported a Bible woman in Soochow, paid a 
scholarship in the Methodist Training School, in Nashville, 
and made a contribution of more than a hundred dollars a year 
to the general fund of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Soci- 
ety. All this was done by Miss Dallas in addition to her du- 
ties as presiding teacher and the instruction of several classes 
in history and literature. 

On account of long, faithful, and efficient service, not only 
in the matter of instruction, but also in the social, literary, and 
moral culture of the girls, should be mentioned the names of 
Miss Lizzie A. Hills, Miss Mary P. Newton, Miss Sarah M. 
Birdsall, and Miss Mary M. Smith. These teachers have not 
used their profession as a stepping-stone to something else, as 
many do, but have gone on year after year cultivating their 
own minds and seeking better preparation for their work. All 
honor to them as they have honored the profession ! 

During the last eight years of the life of the college in Tus- 
kegee another teacher who was remarkably faithful and effi- 
cient in the literary and religious work was Miss Adeline M. 
Tirrell. She is a native of Massachusetts, a graduate of Bos- 
ton University, a woman of fine scholarship and sound reli- 
gious character, whose mind and heart were devoted to the 
welfare and happiness of the students. 

In the last decade of our work in Tuskegee a Young Wom- 
en's Christian Association was organized and was frequently 
visited by the Secretaries of the General Association. 

With all these aids we managed to keep the students well 
occupied and entertained, so that their college life was neither 



REMINISCENCES. 299 

monotonous nor devoid of interest in ennobling pursuits. I 
made it a point to employ teachers who would feel some inter- 
est in the social life of the girls; and, as far as we could, my 
wife and I kept ourselves on free and easy terms with all our 
students. They were generally cheerful and as contented as 
they could be away from home. On one occasion a gentleman 
was spending a day in the college and seemed surprised at the 
cheerfulness of the girls. He asked me how I managed to 
keep them in good spirits. I answered: "By hard work and 
hard-tack." This was a jocular way of putting the philosophy 
of keeping a houseful of girls contented. To put it in more 
exact words : "Keep them busy and feed them well." They 
will not all be contented on this plan, but most of them will be 
reasonably well contented most of the time. I might add an- 
other item to this : Treat them kindly, but never yield to their 
unreasonable requests. To hold the respect of pupils, teachers 
must stand for the right. 

I may here mention a statement made by Miss Sarah M. 
Birdsall, who taught in the college eight years. The state- 
ment is remarkable when it is known that Miss Birdsall is a 
native of New York, a lady of great intelligence, wide experi- 
ence, and real candor. She had studied and traveled in Eu- 
rope and taught in various schools of note both North and 
South. She said frequently while she was with us and also 
after she left us that she had never seen a school so homelike. 

College Sunday School. 

When I entered upon the administration of the college in 
1876, I organized the students of the boarding department into 
classes for Sunday school work. For eleven years I united 
these classes with the Sunday school at the church. As the 
boarding department gradually increased, the college classes 
occupied the greater part of the auditorium of the church and 
crowded out the local Sunday school. 

When the new study hall was completed, In 1887, it gave 
a commodious and comfortable place for the assembly of the 
college classes. Thereafter we conducted the work in the 



300 REMINISCENCES. 

study hall. This left in the church ample room for the local 
Sunday school, obviated the necessity of exposing the girls to 
inclement weather, and gave much more time for the recita- 
tions. 

In order to give a just and more adequate idea of the work 
done, some statement should be made in regard to this fea- 
ture. In the selection of the teachers for the general work I 
had an eye not only to ability in their particular departments, 
but also to soundness of moral and religious character. I 
preferred and generally secured teachers who felt an interest in 
Sunday school work. Thus in using my best judgment in the 
employment of teachers, in the organization of the classes, and 
in the oversight of the work, we succeeded in making what 
was pronounced by all who were acquainted with it a remark- 
ably efficient Sunday school. In it was done as thorough work 
as was done in any other department of the institution. It was 
surprising and gratifying to find how well these students, who 
were in the habit of using their minds, could answer questions 
which no one could anticipate and how much a company of 
young people under favorable conditions can be inspired with 
absorbing interest in the study of the Bible. In addition to 
this work done in the Sunday school, we had regular courses 
in Bible study as part of our curriculum. 

Inquiries Whether I Would Accept the Presidency of 

Other Schools, 

As the success of the school became assured, various in- 
quiries were made from time to time whether I would accept 
the presidency of other schools. 

I have a letter from Dr. J. E. Evans, trustee of the Wes- 
leyan Female College, Macon, Georgia, dated July lo, 1883, 
inquiring whether I could be had for the presidency of the 
Wesleyan, if elected. The same inquiry was made nearly twen- 
ty years later. 

From Judge H. D. Clayton, then a trustee of the Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College, at Auburn, I received a com- 



REMINISCENCES. 301 

munication April 2, 1884, in which he inquired whether I 
would accept the presidency of the college, if elected. 

Colonel A. C. Hargrove, of Tuscaloosa, wrote me May 28, 
1890, asking if I would accept the presidency of the Univer- 
sity of Alabama, if elected. The same inquiry was made by 
some of the trustees on two other occasions. 

A letter from Dr. J. M. Mason, trustee of the Southern 
University, dated January 21, 1899, inquired whether I would 
accept the presidency of the Southern University, if elected. 
The same question was asked by other trustees. 

In June, 1899, I was elected to the presidency of the Girls' 
Industrial School, at Montevallo, notwithstanding that I had 
notified two members of the board that I did not see how I 
could accept under the circumstances. 

Some of my friends thought that I acted unwisely in not 
consenting to leave Tuskegee, as all these places were more 
prominent than the one I held ; but I have no regrets for hav- 
ing acted as I did. I had as many pupils as I could accommo- 
date, pupils from the best people of the whole country. The 
B^oard of Trustees put no restrictions upon me. I had the 
most free and independent position in the State. I did not 
believe that I could do any better in the way of public service 
than by contributing to the important work of making good 
women; and now, in looking over the past, I do not believe 
that I would have done better in any one of these places, if I 
had been elected. 

Colonel D. S. Troy's Opinion. 

In a conversation with Colonel D, S. Troy sometime before 
his death he said : "Adjutant, I believe it was a good thing 
that you did not go into law, as you once thought of doing. 
I have no doubt that you would have made more money in 
the practice of law, but you have made enough to keep the 
wolf from your door. If you had gone into law, you would 
Tiave had to deal with the most unfavorable classes of people 
to exercise any good influence over. In your present position 
you have had the purest and most impressible part of human 



302 REMINISCENCES. 

nature to cultivate. You have had girls from the best people 
of this country as the medium through v^hich you are project- 
ing your influence upon the world. You are to be congratulat- 
ed upon your work." So spoke a candid friend whom I had 
known under the most trying circumstances and whose house 
was always open to me. Though we differed widely in many 
things, we were warm friends to the day of his death. 

Fine Music Department. 

It was said by a good many intelligent people that we had 
one of the finest music schools south of Cincinnati. On it I 
spent money freely in order to have the best. Through Pro- 
fessor Theodore Bohlmann, who had taught Miss Eva Slaton, 
one of the most successful music teachers I ever had, I got in 
communication with Professor Karl Klindworth, of Berlin, 
who was very obliging and very trustworthy in recommending 
teachers. Through him I employed several fine musicians, 
who are now occupying prominent places in this country. 

In maintaining a first-class music department I found that I 
had to counteract some tendencies that were hurtful to the 
work of the broadest and best education. Fine music attracts 
attention and excites a desire to study it for display. I found 
that the majority of the girls imagined they wanted to study 
music. If they did not, their mothers generally wished it. 
I found that too many proposed to drop everything else and 
devote all their time to music. So general did this fashion 
become that I had to decline to take such students unless they 
would agree to carry a reasonable amount of work in the reg- 
ular literary course. Adherence to this decision sometimes 
caused me to lose patronage. Not unfrequently pupils wanted 
to study music who had no talent for it and who ought not to 
have wasted time and money on it. After a fair trial in such 
cases, my plan was to try to direct them to something else that 
they could do successfully. In this effort I sometimes suc- 
ceeded ; sometimes I lost scholars. I found that the best musi- 
cians I ever turned out were students who carried a full liter- 
ary course, often including the languages. This convinced me 



REMINISCENCES. 303 

that sesthetic culture reaches its highest degree in connection 
with general culture. 

As I am now out of the business and cannot be suspected of 
a selfish motive in making the statement, I will say that I be- 
lieve the A-grade women's colleges should provide for the best 
musical instruction, have a high grade of work done, and give 
it full value in the requirements of graduation instead of dis- 
couraging work in this department. Music properly studied 
has as great educational value as some other subjects in the 
curriculum. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Conditions That Favored My Work — Loyalty and Cooperation of My 
Teachers — Professors of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute — Major W. 
W. Screws — Chautauqua, New York — Changed Conditions — Woman's 
College of Alabama — Booker Washington — Trials and Their Issue — On 
Entering My Eighty-Second Year — Our Home, 

T FOUND a belief prevalent In the public mind which was 
■*■ expressed by a young man who said that he would likvi to 
be the president of a girls' college. When asked why, he said : 
"It is a gold mine." Some men may have made more out of 
such schools than was good for the pupils or promotive of the 
cause of education ; but the truth is, not every man that tried 
it found a "gold mine" in this field. I can count on the fingers 
of one hand all the teachers I have ever known who made more 
than a decent living out of girls' schools, or any other sort of 
schools for that matter. 

It is true that I made a little more than a living in the 
thirty-three years I was in charge of the college, but I take no 
credit to myself for good financiering. My success was due 
to a combination of good providences and propitious circum- 
stances. I had the place a long time, longer, I believe, than 
any other man ever held the same position in this State 
except Dr. William S. Wyman. The adage of the "rolling 
stone," which applies to so many teachers, did not apply to 
me. Most of the time I was able to do some of the heavy 
work myself. I had the greatest possible assistance in the 
good judgment, indomitable energy, and economical manage- 
ment of my wife. Without her assistance I never could have 
accomplished what I did. I passed through a period of more 
than twenty years of the lowest cost of living I have ever 
known. I had a good patronage from a class of people who 
were nearly always prompt in paying their bills. While I was 
in great danger of fire, I never had a destructive fire. Though 
we had nearly every kind of epidemic that passed through the 
country, we were never seriously interrupted on that account, 
(304) 



REMINISCENCES. 305 

except once for two weeks on account of smallpox, when I sent 
the girls home as a precautionary measure. This was on the 
9th day of March, when one-third of the school year remained 
to be completed. What the outcome might be, I did not know. 
If there should be any further development of the disease, I 
knew that we would have to close the college for the remain- 
der of the year. Two questions came up for my answers: 
( I ) Shall I refund the money to my patrons for the unexpired 
term? Of this I had no doubt. (2) Shall I pay my teachers 
their salaries for the entire year? This was not so easy to 
decide. They were subject to calamity like myself and with 
some reason might be required to share the loss with me, but 
they could not get work elsewhere for the remainder of the 
year and needed their salaries. I endeavored to decide the 
questions according to the Golden Rule. I resolved to pay 
them their full salaries for the year. I had the consciousness 
of having obtained my consent to hold moral obligation above 
financial considerations. 

After thoroughly disinfecting the buildings and having no 
further development of smallpox, at the end of two weeks I 
recalled the girls. They all returned except seven. No one 
believed that they would return ; and they would not have done 
so unless they and their parents had believed my statements. 
This they would not have done unless I had been willing to act 
in a way that God could approve by his help. 

In addition to these favorable circumstances, I had the sup- 
port of the Conference, the approval of the Board of Trustees, 
the friendly influence of the citizens of Tuskegee, and the 
loyalty of my old pupils and patrons generally. I deem it just 
and proper to make this public acknowledgment of God's good 
providence over me and my work during my connection with 

the college. 

Teachers. 

A number of excellent men and women had served in the 

faculty before my administration began. As I have given a 

brief history of the school, I include their names in the list 

below, as far as known. From the beginning of my adminis- 

20 



3o6 REMINISCENCES. 

tration I sought the best-equipped talent to be found anywhere. 
Some of my assistants came from such institutions as the fol- 
lowing : Southern University, Emory College, Wellesley Col- 
lege, Boston University, Vanderbilt University, Johns Hop- 
kins University, University of Berlin, University of Chicago, 
Goucher College, and Randolph-Macon College. I was for- 
tunate in having, almost without exception, the loyal coopera- 
tion of my teachers. It may be interesting to preserve the 
names of these excellent people who helped to make the college 
a success : 

Rev. M. S. Andrews, D.D., Rev. J. W. Rush, D.D., Pro- 
fessor E. R. Dickson, A.M., LL.D., Professor John Darby, 
A.M., Professor W. H. C. Price, A.M., Professor Anderson, 
Professor Funk, Professor Corbin, Colonel John A. Jones, 
A.M., Miss Julia Spear, Miss Susan B. Lipscomb, Mrs, H. D. 
Moore, Miss Mollie St. Clair, Mrs. E. H. Stuart, Miss Kate 
Edmonds, Miss Clara Stafford, Mrs. E. F. Massey, Miss Mary 
A. Barker, Miss Emma Watkins, Miss Mary H. Rush, Miss 
Anna Vasser, Miss Mary Alice Caller, Miss Mattie B. Porter, 
Professor Erwin Schneider, Miss Nita Smith, Professor C. L. 
Doll, Mrs. C. L. Doll, Miss Leila Griggs, Professor L. F. 
Whitaker, Miss Mary Belle Dallas, Professor J. B. Grass, Miss 
Annie G. Carson, Miss Lizzie A. Hills, Miss Minnie Gardner, 
Miss Mary P. Newton, Miss Nettie Florence Griggs, Miss Ella 
R. Smilie, Miss Eva Slaton, Miss Lelia L. Wheeler, Miss Gussie 
Brewer, Miss Sarah M. Birdsall, Professor Edwin L. Gard- 
iner, Miss Mary M. Smith, Professor Kurt Mueller, Mrs. 
Clara Mueller, Miss Gertrude Graham, Miss Grace Lee Brown, 
Miss Penelope McDuffie, A.B., of Vanderbilt, Miss Florence 
E. Loup, A.B., of Wellesley, Professor R. E. Brooks, A.B., of 
Emory, Miss Adeline M. Tirrell, A.B., of Boston University, 
Mr. L. V. Massey, A.B., of Southern University, Miss Theo- 
dora Morgan, Miss Minna Grote, A.B., of Southern Univer- 
sity, Miss Emily Robinson, Miss Estelle R. Delano, Professor 
Grantland Murray, A.B., of Emory and Johns Hopkins, Miss 
Louise P. Bang, A.B., of Vanderbilt, Miss Roberta Du Bose, 
A.B., of Vanderbilt, Miss Esther Crawford, Miss B. McAr- 



REMINISCENCES. 307 

thur, Miss Reba Stuart, A.B., o£ Randolph-Macon, Miss Mar- 
tha McAdory, A.B., of Randolph-Macon, Professor Johannes 
Magendenz, University of Berlin, Miss Nelson Hackett, Miss 
Stella Chapman, Professor Leon Sampaix, Miss Mabelle Mas- 
sey, Miss S. C. Mayes, A.B., of Randolph-Macon, Miss Jane 
Gibbs, Miss Olive Dhu Owen, Miss Isabel Wooldridge, A.B., 
of Goucher College, Miss Mary Ebaugh, A.B., of Goucher 
College, and Miss Florence Trumbull, of the University of 
Chicago. 

Professors of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. 

For nearly a quarter of a century I v\ras greatly assisted in 
my work by the professors of the Alabama Polytechnic Insti- 
tute, at Auburn, twenty miles from Tuskegee. Drs. William 
Leroy Broun, O. D. Smith, N. T. Lupton, P. H. Mell, C. C. 
Thach, George Petrie, B. B. Ross, C. A. Ross, C. A. Carey, and 
others delivered courses of lectures on mathematics, astronomy, 
chemistry, hygiene, history, and literature. These lectures were 
illuminating and inspiring and added much toward the success 
of our work. 

For many years I engaged the best platform and musical 
talent to be had from the lecture bureaus and musical conser- 
vatories. The expenses incurred I paid largely out of the in- 
come of the school, as a reasonable fee from the students and 
the door fees from the public were not sufficient to meet the 
expenses of the best attractions. These performances gave to 
the pupils of the school the opportunity of hearing some of the 
best things that passed through the country, and the record of 
the work done in the college from 1876 to 1909 would not be 
complete without this statement. 

Major W. W. Screws. 

In my early years in the college I was greatly assisted by 
the complimentary editorials in the Montgomery Advertiser 
written by Major W. W. Screws and Mr. George P. Keyes, 
two of my comrades in the war. When the president of a 
prominent college complained that the paper more warmly in- 



3o8 REMINISCENCES. 

dorsed Massey than it did him, the answer of Major Screws 
was : "I knew Massey in the army." 

When I went out of the college in 1909, Major Screws 
wrote an editorial from which the following paragraphs are 
taken : 

When Dr. Massey retired from the Alabama Conference Female Col- 
lege, one of the most remarkable careers and one of the most useful in 
the whole history of Alabama closed. Dr. Massey lived away from the 
strife of politics and, therefore, away from the light of publicity. But it 
is meet that his splendid life and achievements should receive acknowledg- 
ment. It is due him, it is due the Church which his life has honored, it is 
due the cause of education which his labor has uplifted that tribute should 
be paid him and his remarkable work. 

Those who know him as the gentle educator can hardly reconcile their 
ideal of him with that of the men who knew him as a gallant soldier. It 
is all the more to his honor that this educator of deep piety should be 
recalled as the dashing adjutant who bore himself well on every field of 
battle. 

The daring are the tender, it is said; and it is not incongruous that a 
dashing Confederate soldier should become the lovable and able president 
of a school for girls and should in this role achieve greater success than he 
did as a soldier. 

As an educator of young women his career has been without a parallel 
in this State, not only in its length of activity, covering thirty-three years, 
an entire generation, but in its influence and impress upon the many hun- 
dreds of his students and through them upon his Church and his people. 

However exaggerated these statements may seem, they are 
the expressions of a sincere friend. It is meet that I should 
make some reference to him in my reminiscences. 

William Wallace Screws was born February 25, 1839, in 
Barbour County, Alabama, and was educated in Glennville 
High School under such men as General Alpheus Barker and 
Dr. Allen S. Andrews. 

We first met in 1862, when I was the adjutant of the First 
Battalion of Hilliard's Legion and he was a member of Com- 
pany A. In those times that tried men's souls I was glad to 
count in my circle of friends this bright, clean young man. I 
wish now to pay him this tribute, that through all the obliter- 
ating influences of fifty-one years his generous spirit and his 
manly character have retained for him an honored place in my 
circle of friends. 



REMINISCENCES. 309 

As a soldier he had the consecration and the courage to 
place his life upon the altar of his country. As a patriot he 
fought for the rights of his people in the dark days when it 
was neither popular nor safe to do so. As a public-spirited 
citizen he was foremost in every good cause. As an editor he 
ranked among the ablest in the State. This brave, strong, 
public-spirited citizen has won a secure place in the history of 
Alabama ; but it was in private life that he shone in the love- 
liest colors. I learned from mutual friends that he did more 
unheralded deeds of charity, visited more bereaved homes, at- 
tended more funerals, and spoke more cheering words to the 
disconsolate than any other layman in Montgomery. When 
W. W. Screws passed away on the night of August 7, 1913, 
the lamentation of the prophet was realized : "How the strong 
staff is broken, and the beautiful rod!" 

Chautauqua and Educational Associations. 

Among the private individuals and the public institutions 
that have modified and ameliorated my life, I should not fail to 
mention the Chautauqua Institution. The Chautauqua idea 
sprang from the brain of a man who first saw the light under 
the genial skies of Alabama. His parents, of sturdy Huguenot 
stock, came to Tuscaloosa in the early settlement of the State. 
On February 23, 1832, there was born to them a son who was 
destined to exercise a large influence on the civilization of the 
world. After living some years in their Southern home, the 
family returned to Pennsylvania, whence they came. Southern 
in his birth and Northern in his education and residence, this 
distinguished son of both sections of our country is universal 
in his sympathies and has done as much as any man I have 
known in obliterating the bitterness between the North and the 
South. If I ever saw a man whose name, like Abou Ben 
Adhem's, "leads all the rest" in love to his fellow men, that 
man is John Heyl Vincent. He is always planning for the 
welfare of the human race. Dr. Jesse L. Hurlbut, one of his 
associates in the Chautauqua movement, said : "Bishop Vin- 
cent can think of more things before six o'clock in the morning 



3IO REMINISCENCES. 

than we can do all day." In his plans for the spread of useful 
knowledge he was the forerunner of the University Extension 
Movement, which is doing much for the popularization of 
learning that used to be conjfined to the universities. 

I have never known any man who manifested more concern 
for the cultivation of deep personal piety, for the right kind of 
family government, and for the proper training of children 
than Bishop Vincent. Upon these essential things he believes 
the stability of our civilization depends. His name will be 
remembered and honored when the names of many captains 
of industry shall have been forgotten. 

I first visited Chautauqua in the summer of 1884. I made 
several short visits after this and would have gone every year 
but for my detention in Alabama in the interest of the college. 
From 1892 till the year of her death, in 1912, my wife, unless 
hindered by sickness, paid a yearly visit to Chautauqua. It 
was to her a Mecca of inspiration. During the eight years 
from 1905 to 191 2 I spent from six to seven weeks in the 
assembly. Here I heard many of the finest preachers and lec- 
turers in the English-speaking world. From them I received 
great mental and spiritual profit. The benefits I received were 
not, however, confined to the public platform. I found it a 
liberalizing thing to mingle with cultivated people from all sec- 
tions of our country. Such association does away with some 
of our provincialism without diminishing our interest in local 
affairs. Such intercourse dulls the edge of some of our sharp 
prejudices without deadening our zeal for the duties that lie 
nearest to us. Such interchange of civility clarifies our vision, 
quickens our interest in people beyond our circle, and enables 
us to fasten our spiritual tendrils on the universal good that 
comes from our cooperation in God's government of the world. 

Lawyers have their bar associations; physicians have their 
medical associations; scientists have their special associations 
for comparing notes and cultivating good fellowship. Every 
teacher should belong to some educational association. Since 
1 88 1 I have been a member of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation and part of the time of the Southern and Alabama 



REMINISCENCES. 311 

Associations. I have made it a rule to attend their sessions 
whenever possible. The volumes of their proceedings have 
always been sent to me. Through these agencies I have been 
greatly benefited as a teacher. I have been able to keep abreast 
with the trend of educational thought in its various phases as 
it has developed from decade to decade. My views have been 
enlarged. New methods have often been suggested. Interest 
in my work has been stimulated. I was made more fully con- 
scious that I belong to a great company of workers all striv- 
ing toward the same noble end. It is an inspiration to feel that 
we are not alone in our work, in whatever field it may fall. 
Cooperation is God's order of the world's work. "Bush- 
whackers" never achieve any great victories nor gain any last- 
ing fame. The reasons assigned in the preceding paragraph 
for cordial cooperation apply with emphasis in the case of 
professional teachers. 

Changed Conditions. 

During the last years of my administration I began to see 
that the college would have to be moved from Tuskegee if it 
was to be maintained as an educational plant adequate to the 
demand of the times. Great changes had occurred since the 
Tuskegee Female College was founded, in 1854. Then there 
were no centers of population north of Mobile much larger 
than Tuskegee. Then the population of the State consisted 
mainly of country people who lived on their plantations. Be- 
yond the boats on the rivers, their means of travel were horses, 
buggies, carriages, and spring wagons. It was considered a 
small matter to go a hundred miles through the country to take 
a boy or girl to school. The war completely changed the status 
of plantation life. Railroads brought about new and rapid 
modes of travel, built up new centers of population, and con- 
centrated business in points favorable to trade. The whole 
commercial condition of the State had undergone a marvel- 
ous transformation; and the educational conditions had also 
changed, if possible, more than the material. Now, in the sec- 
ond decade of the twentieth century, public schools are doing 



312 REMINISCENCES. 

the work of elementary education in every community. Town^ 
city, and country high schools are doing much of the work that 
the college in Tuskegee formerly did. The time came when 
there was little left for the college to do below the field of 
collegiate education. This grade of work cannot be done with- 
out ample endowment, unless generously supported by the 
Church or by the State. No institution can stand against the 
changing currents of popular sentiment any more than a house 
can stand against the shifting currents of the Mississippi River. 
The old order had passed away. 

The money and land could be secured for the foundation of 
an adequate plant in Montgomery, one of the railroad centers 
of the State. The only sensible thing to do was to close the 
old college in Tuskegee and transfer its influence to the new 
woman's college in Montgomery. This change of location 
was the inevitable result of changed conditions. No one was 
to blame for this change; and, furthermore, no one has been 
injured financially by the change. 

The old college cost the Conference, as I have stated, about 
twenty thousand dollars. The endowment of the old college, 
which was turned over to the new college in 1909, was a little 
over sixteen thousand dollars. This, with the sum realized 
from the sale of the property, amounted to considerably more 
than the property cost the Conference, to say nothing of the 
five thousand dollars in cash, along with the furniture, appa- 
ratus, and pianos, which went as my donation from the old 
college to the new. The Conference had the use of the prop- 
erty in its own right for nearly forty years. During this time 
preachers' daughters were charged only half the usual rates. 
I made this deduction on account of the five thousand dollars 
of the Thompson Fund which had gone into the college. 

The Tuskegee Female College cost the original trustees sixty- 
three thousand dollars. The people of Tuskegee were far from 
being financial losers by their donations to the college. It was 
in operation fifty-three years. A patronage of seventy-five 
girls from a distance, counting boarders in the college and in 
the town, is a conservative annual estimate. Consider the 



REMINISCENCES. 313 

money they brought to the college at only two hundred dollars 
apiece, which is less than they generally paid, and it will be 
seen that fifteen thousand dollars a year is a moderate esti- 
mate. Multiply this by fifty-three years, and it appears that 
nearly a million dollars came to the college during its life in 
Tuskegee. A large part of this was spent in the town, besides 
considerable sums spent by teachers and students not counted 
in this estimate. 

The girls of the community were educated for a half cen- 
tury as well as it could have been done in any other school in the 
land at that time for about one-fifth of what it would have cost 
to send them off to college. These estimates take no account of 
the refining influence which an institution of learning always 
exerts on a community. Tuskegee never invested in anything 
that paid better dividends than the money it invested in the 
college. 

So far as people at a distance who contributed to the college 
are concerned, they did not get their money back dollar for 
dollar; but if the college has exerted the beneficent influence 
on society at large which has generally been attributed to it, 
they have had their reward in this public benefaction. 

Woman's College of Alabama. 

A word in regard to the Woman's College of Alabama. 
Mr. and Mrs. John J. Flowers had for several years before 
his death been thinking seriously of doing something worth 
while for the benefit of humanity. They had about fully deter- 
mined to do this when he was called away from the world. 
This left Mrs. Flowers as the real promoter of the college. 
She and her children knew his generous intentions and stood 
ready to carry out his wishes. They proposed to give fifty 
thousand dollars for the founding of a woman's college in 
Montgomery upon the following conditions : That an approved 
site of ample grounds be donated, that the city of Montgomery 
give fifty thousand dollars, and that the two Alabama Confer- 
ences raise twenty-five thousand dollars each. These condi- 
tions were acceded to. Mr. J. G. Thomas gave fifty-eight 



314 REMINISCENCES. 

acres of land, and the city of Montgomery contributed fifty 
thousand dollars. Two handsome buildings have been erected, 
and the plant was (in 191 3) estimated at two hundred and 
sixty-one thousand dollars. 

The success of the business side of the enterprise has been 
largely due to the courage, energy, and tact of Dr. J. M. Dan- 
nelly, who was the financial agent from the beginning. 

Wlien the trustees were canvassing the subject of the presi- 
dency of the Woman's College, they offered the place to me. 
I appreciated this honorable oft"er, but felt it my duty toi decline 
on account of advanced age and a firm belief that a young man 
could do the work better than one who had spent his energies 
on the past generation. 

I consider it appropriate to make special mention of a teach- 
er who was for years a student in the old college and who, 
after taking the degree of A.B. in Randolph-Macon Woman's 
College, was a most efficient teacher during the last two years 
of the old college and the first three years of the new, Miss 
Sallie C. Mayes, who enjoys the unique distinction of forming 
the vital connection between the two institutions. I am sure 
that the friends she made in both colleges with unite in felici- 
tations upon her marriage to Mr. Albert S. Danner on June 

25, 1913- 

Booker Washington. 

In my travels either North or South, when it becomes known 
that I live in Tuskegee, the question is sure to be asked : "What 
do you think of Booker Washington?" Almost every one is 
curious to look at this remarkable man through the eyes of a 
near neighbor. As I am giving reminiscences of people I have 
known, I will not avoid this question because there have been 
diversities of opinion in regard to the subject of it. 

In the year 1880 Hon. W. F. Foster and Hon. Asa Brooks, 
respectively Representative and Senator from Macon County, 
had a bill passed through the Legislature of Alabama appro- 
priating two thousand dollars annually for the maintenance of 
a normal school for the education of colored teachers. Four 
years later this appropriation was increased to three thousand. 



REMINISCENCES. 315 

George W. Campbell, Esq., an honored citizen and the only 
banker in Tuskegee at that time, Lewis Adams, a colored man, 
a shoemaker and tinner by trade, and Raymond Threat, a col- 
ored carpenter, were appointed trustees of the school. They 
wrote to General Armstrong, of Hampton, Virginia, request- 
ing him to send a man to take charge of the school. General 
Armstrong recommended Booker Washington, a young man 
about twenty-three years of age. He came in the fall of 1881, 
took charge of the school, and conducted it in an old church 
till better quarters could be provided. To supplement the 
State appropriation, contributions were solicited, mainly from 
Northern people, who alone had the money to give. But 
money did not come in large sums for some years. The school 
was often hard pressed for means to meet its expenses during 
its early history and was sometimes carried through its impe- 
cunious periods by Mr. Campbell, who never lost faith in 
Washington while he was endeavoring to gain the confidence 
of Northern friends. When ]\Ir. Collis P. Huntington was 
first approached for a donation, he gave two dollars. Years 
afterwards, when he saw what Washington was doing, Mr. 
Huntington gave fifty thousand dollars. 

As soon as Washington could get the means he started a 
brickyard and a carpenter shop and began trying to inculcate 
ideas of industry and orderly conduct among the negroes, some 
of whom had been too long waiting for "forty acres and a 
mule from the government." Thinking that it would be a 
good thing to help the industrial feature of the school, I sug- 
gested to Dr. Atticus G. Haygood, who was then the agent of 
the Slater Fund, that I believed a donation would be worthily 
placed at this point. Dr. Haygood visited the school, was 
pleased with the work, and induced his board to make an an- 
nual contribution, which was continued for a number of vears. 

Some years ago a grant of twenty-five thousand acres of 
mineral land came to this school through an act of Congress, 
which donated the same number of acres to the Girls' Indus- 
trial School, at Montevallo. Thus out of the State appropria- 
tion as its first support and the old church as its first home, the 



3i6 REMINISCENCES. 

school has grown until it now has over one hundred public 
buildings, constituting a plant worth several millions, and an 
annual patronage of about sixteen hundred students. 

How did Washington do this? In a conversation with an 
intelligent citizen about fifteen years ago we were discussing 
the growth of the Normal School. My friend was apprehen- 
sive that it would be a menace to the country when it got strong 
enough to show its real animus. I cited several facts showing 
the fine discipline of the school and the restraints which Wash- 
ington preached and practiced. The gentleman replied : "Yes, 
he shows a tact and a self-control that are almost superhu- 
man." Now, I do not believe that tact and self-control alone 
could ever have accomplished such results. 

Some years ago Washington made a speech in Tuscaloosa. 
A gentleman who heard it said that he was at a loss to account 
for his influence over an audience ; for, said he, "he is not an 
orator." The editor of the paper from which I read the ac- 
count asked this question: "Wouldn't any man like to be able 
to exercise the influence which Washington has over an audi- 
ence, whether of the most intelligent class or the ignorant and 
illiterate?" 

While he may not have been considered an orator in the 
usual acceptation of that term, he had the power to state his 
thoughts in clear-cut, forcible language and to elucidate his 
meaning by apt illustrations and sprightly anecdotes — all per- 
vaded by good humor and expressed by a voice, not particu- 
larly melodious, but of great carrying power. No doubt this 
faculty helped him in his work, but his oratory alone fails to 
account for his achievements. He could never by his elo- 
quence, like George Whitefield, have induced Benjamin Frank- 
lin to empty his whole purse into the collector's dish. Some- 
thing else besides his tact, his self-control, and his oratory is 
necessary to account for his success. 

Now, with a full share of innate feeling against the amalga- 
mation of the races, I have observed Washington and his work 
from the beginning. I have been, I think, ready enough to 
see any objectionable features that might crop out during this 



REMINISCENCES. 317 

extraordinary growth. I have also been striving to be a fair 
and open-minded man, seeking to do the right thing by every 
human being. 

During the last fifteen years I heard Washington speak in 
Charleston, South Carolina, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and 
in the North, as well as here at home. All these speeches were 
characterized by the same sentiment expressed in his Charles- 
ton speech, in which he exhorted his own race to cherish 
friendly feelings toward the white people among whom they 
live. He said he thanked God that he had so far gotten 
the victory over all malevolent prejudices that he would not 
harbor in his breast unkind feelings toward any man. So 
far as I have been able to judge, his actions at home and 
abroad have been in accord with this sentiment. No provo- 
cation threw him off this line of pacific conduct. In the 
language of my friend : "His tact and his self-control have 
been almost superhuman." This course has awakened the idea 
of justice that slumbers in the human breast, has appealed to the 
generosity of the benevolent, disarmed the prejudices of the un- 
sympathetic, and opened the way for a success which has been 
wrought out by most untiring and unselfish labor. 

On a former page I have mentioned the estrangement of 
the races as the most deplorable result of the Reconstruction 
period. Since the two races are to live here side by side, some 
amicable plan must be found upon which we can live in peace. 
Animosity always magnifies and multiplies evils, which dis- 
solve and melt away under the power of good will like dismal 
fogs before the rising sun. I do not know any man who has 
done so much to blot out estrangement between the races and 
bring in an era of good feeling as Booker Washington. Dr. 
Washington modestly wore the highest honorary title con- 
ferred by the universities of this country; but his unselfish 
work, his peaceable conduct, and his law-abiding example far 
surpasses any complimentary title that can be conferred. 

Born in slavery in 1858, he lived in poverty during his child- 
hood, worked In the coal mines In his boyhood, went to night 
schools, walked to Hampton Institute, graduated with dis- 



3i8 REMINISCENCES. 

tinction, and taught Indians because they most needed help. 
He died on Sunday morning, November 14, 191 5, at the age 
of fifty-seven, worn out with overwork, "He that loseth his 
life for my sake," said Christ, "shall find it." Washington 
has found his life in the success that crowned his labors, in the 
good example he has left behind him in the world, and in that 
larger life of the eternal years. 

I have never known in this State any other man to go to his 
grave more honored than Dr. Washington. I believe that it is 
the patriotic and humane duty of all men to encourage the good 
work which he left as his monument. 

Trials and Their Issue. 

In my boyhood I used to feel an apprehensiveness of danger 
which could hardly be reconciled with a high order of natural 
courage. I have been able to overcome this to some extent by 
appealing first to pride, then to reason, and later to a sense of 
duty and to confidence in God's care. I have thus been able 
to stand in the places which I have been called to fill without 
compromising my manhood, though not always without some 
dread of danger. 

At intervals during the first part of my life I did not expect 
to reach the goal of threescore and ten years. This had a 
tendency to depress me. By cultivating temperate habits, by 
cherishing hopeful views of life, and by calling on the Lord to 
deliver my soul from death, I have reached more than four- 
score years, profoundly thankful for the goodness and mercy 
that have followed me all the days of my life. 

While I usually had the satisfaction of feeling that I was 
achieving a moderate degree of success, I was occasionally 
made to realize that any one who resolutely performs all his 
duties may expect to find a band of "blue" in his life's spec- 
trum. The colors will not always blend in pure white light to 
shine on his path. While trying to make the most out of 
children who did not always want to make the most of them- 
selves, I sometimes caused misunderstandings and called forth 



REMINISCENCES, 319 

angry criticisms from patrons who desired their children to 
have exceptional privileges. In some instances these censures 
were so unreasonable and unjust that my blood boiled to an- 
swer in the same acrimonious tone. On several of these occa- 
sions my wife came to my aid and advised me to be patient 
and to take time to cool off till, with her assistance, I could 
state the case in a calm and respectful manner. By thus con- 
quering my anger and getting all bitterness out of my heart I 
was nearly always able to reconcile my patrons and to retain 
their good will and this, too, without any sacrifice of my self- 
respect. But such a course required the crucifixion of my nat- 
ural impulse tO' passionate resentment. 

Several times while I was running the college my wife was 
desperately ill and had to be sent away for treatment and re- 
cuperation. In addition to my solicitude for her recovery, I 
always felt keenly the lack of her wise counsel and courageous 
spirit, especially as I could not tell in her absence what evil in- 
fluences might be brooding among our crowd of inexperienced 
girls susceptible to temptations which, like the old serpent, were 
always lying in wait for opportunities to enter. At such times 
the impatient desire stirred within me to get out of the fiery 
furnace of trial. While I was in one of these seasons of temp- 
tation I saw a countryman riding along the street whistling 
and apparently so care-free and contented that I longed for a 
quiet little farm out in the country, far from the consuming 
responsibility of taking care of the health, the good name, and 
the moral character of a throng of careless young people. It 
required all my resources of reason and constant recourse to 
prayer to enable me to stand firm in those periods of tribula- 
tion. Through all the succeeding years my heart has been 
singing a grateful psean that I was able to stand, but conscious 
that, like one on a dizzy height, I might have fallen. With 
Robert Louis Stevenson, I have felt some of the triumph of 
victory and some of the solemnity at the narrow escape from 
failure. 



320 REMINISCENCES. 

If This Were Faith. 

"If to feel in the ink of the slough 
And the sink of the mire 
Veins of glory and fire 
Run through and transpierce and transpire, 
And a secret purpose of glory in every part, 
And the answering glory of battle fill my heart; 
To thrill with the glory of girded men, 
To go on forever, and fail, and go on again, 
And be mauled to the earth and arise. 
And contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen with 

the eyes; 
With the half of a broken hope for a pillow at night 
That somehow the right is the right. 
And the smooth shall bloom from the rough : 
Lord, if that were enough !" 

Or, viewing it from a purely religious standpoint, we may put 
it in the language of St. Paul : "Being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom 
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, 
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but 
we glory in tribulations also : knowing that tribulation work- 
eth patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: 
and hope maketh not ashamed : because the love of God [that 
is, God's love to us] is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
Ghost which is given unto us." 

On Entering My Eighty-Second Year, 

On this the i6th day of December, 1915, I am entering upon 
the eighty-second year of my pilgrimage. I look back upon my 
life barren of any results that can be seen. I have planned no 
business enterprises. I have made no useful discoveries in 
science. I have founded no institutions of learning. I have 
failed to see the realization of a well-coordinated plan for the 
educational work of Alabama Methodism, such a plan of unit- 
ed action as would, I sincerely believe, be most promotive of 
the kingdom of God within our borders. Whatever may have 
been the results of my endeavors to lead the young into the 
just fear of God, whatever may have been the result of my 
endeavors to keep the work of education thoroughly Chris- 
tian, whatever may be the outcome of my efforts to secure 



REMINISCENCES. 321 

united action in the future, I am thankful for every effort I 
have put forth toward these ends that lie in the realm of spirit 
where character is formed. I am thankful that I have had 
some desire to aid in the proper cultivation of the invisible 
spiritual capacities of my fellow human beings who have in 
Christ the birthright to mature in righteous character and 
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of God. 

I am impressed, however, with the solemn reflection that my 
work might have been more fruitful if I had made more 
prayerful efforts to live in an atmosphere of pure universal 
love. But, in view of my shortcomings, I am saying with the 
Psalmist: "I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; 
and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." "He only is my 
rock and my salvation." Jesus, the crucified Saviour, the risen 
Lord, the imperial Christ, commands my adoration. All my 
trust is stayed on him. Toplady's expressive hymn finds an 
echo in my spirit : 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee ; 
Let the water and the blood, 
From thy wounded side which flowed. 
Be of sin the double cure, 
Save from wrath and make me pure. 

Could my tears forever flow. 
Could my zeal no languor know. 
These for sin could not atone; 
Thou must save, and thou alone : 
In my hand no price I bring; 
Simply to thy cross I cling. 

While I draw this fleeting breath, 
When my eyes shall close in death, 
When I rise to worlds unknown. 
And behold thee on thy throne, 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me. 
Let me hide myself in thee." 

Our Home. 

From the time I left my boyhood home in January, 1854, 
except for two years in the war and a short while in Summer- 
field, I had always lived in the buildings of schools and col- 
21 



322 REMINISCENCES. 

leges. On retiring from the college in 1909 it was a question 
with my wife and myself where we should build a home of our 
own. 

As the best evidence of our high regard for the people of 
Tuskegee, let it be remembered that we decided to spend our 
last days among those with whom we had lived the larger part 
of our lives and with whose dead we wished to be buried. We 
bought a lot nearly opposite the old college site, built a modest 
home in the midst of graceful shrubbery and lovely trees, the 
growth of half a century. She furnished the house to suit her 
own taste, planted green lawns, fruit trees, and fragrant flow- 
ers, till the place grew restful in its attractions. But her soul 
was too great to find rest in any pleasures the world can give. 
Beyond earth's charms she had caught a vision of blessedness 
which her heart yearned to reveal to those whose lives had b^en 
blighted by sin and suffering. Her feelings were drawn out 
not only toward the sick, the destitute, and the distressed 
around her, but her thoughts flew to the ends of the earth on 
wings of strong desire to send the evangel of hope wherever 
sin and sorrow are found. Care for the erring, compassion for 
the fallen, and love for the lost found a responsive echo in her 
sympathetic spirit. For the relief of human woe she drew on 
every resource at her command, whether of mind, body, or 
estate. Thus she lived for three years in the home which her 
own hands had beautified till, October 21, 19 12, she entered 
the ministries of the life eternal, which to her meant, as it 
meant to Bishop Marvin, a state of continued activity, with the 
limitations of earth removed. The lines of Richard Watson 
Gilder, written on the death of Alice Freeman Palmer, may 
fitly close this paragraph : 

"When fell to-day the word that she had gone, 
Not this my thought: Here a bright journey ends; 
Here rests a soul unresting; here, at last, 
Here ends that earnest strength, that generous life — 
For all her life was giving. Rather this 
I said (after the first swift, sorrowing pang) : 
Radiant with love and love's unending power, 
Hence on a new quest starts an eager spirit; 



REMINISCENCES. 

No dread, no doubt, unhesitating forth 
With asking eyes; pure as the bodiless souls 
Whom poets vision near the central throne 
Angelically ministrant to man. 
So fares she forth with smiling, Godward face- 
Nor should we grieve, but give eternal thanks- 
Save that we mortal are and needs must mourn " 



zn 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

In Memoriam : Mrs. E. F. Massey. 

THREE memorial services were held in memory of Mrs. 
Massey. The first was held at the Woman's College, in 
Montgomery, on the Sunday following her death. Later two 
services were held in Tuskegee, one by the resident alumnse, 
who had known and loved her from childhood, and the other, 
which forms the subject matter of this chapter, by the women 
who had been fellow workers in the upbuilding of the Wom- 
an's Home Mission Society and tlie Woman's Foreign Mission- 
ary Society. 

"God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly 

What he has given; 
They live on earth in thought and deed as truly 
As in his heaven." 

Elnora Frances Dallas Massey was born in Tishabee, Greene 
County, Alabama, on November 6, 1852. The first seven years 
of her life were spent in the country on her mother's plantation. 
Her father died in her early childhood, leaving a large family 
of children. The mother gave up the plantation and moved to 
Summerfield, where there were good schools for both boys and 
girls. Some of the older children married and moved to Texas. 
After a few years the mother decided to follow them. "Nonie," 
as Mrs. Massey was always called, was then about fourteen 
years old. She was given the choice of going to Texas or 
remaining in Summerfield to finish her education. It was a 
great struggle for her to decide between being separated from 
her family and giving up her only chance of an education. 
Her niece tells of finding her alone praying for guidance. 
Her final choice was to remain in Summerfield with her sister, 
Mrs. Canning. 

One marked characteristic of her whole life was her great 
eagerness for knowledge. She was a most earnest student as 
long as she lived. Even after the condition of her eyes and 
(324) 



REMINISCENCES. 325 

health made reading a great burden, she continued her efforts 
to gain useful knowledge. 

She graduated in Summerfield under President W. J. 
Vaughn, for whom she always had great love and reverence. 
She was married on July 9, 1873, to John Massey, who had 
two sons and one daughter by his former wife. The oldest 
son died one year after his second marriage. The other two 
children still live. To these children Mrs. Massey was a loving 
and faithful mother throughout her life. 

After their marriage they lived one year in Summerfield, 
two in Mobile, and then went to Tuskegee to take charge of 
the Alabama Conference Female College, where they remained 
thirty-three years. These early years were full of cares and the 
hardest kind of work. Mrs. Massey gave herself as a mother 
to every girl who entered the school. As the years passed and 
her cares and labors were somewhat relieved, she began to take 
an active part in all the good work of the town. 

Ten years before leaving the college her health gave way 
completely, and it became necessary for her to be relieved of 
all onerous household duties. As soon as she began to regain 
some degree of strength she took up her Church and charitable 
work with renewed zeal, which never abated as long as she 
lived. 

The last three years of her life were spent in her own com- 
fortable home, where every want was supplied and her days 
could have passed in ease and rest. But for her there was no 
rest while sin and sickness and suffering remained in the world. 
Up to the very end, along with her own increasing burden of 
failing health, she bore on her heart the burdens of the whole 
world. At last came the call: "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." She obeyed the 
call and has gone to "the rest that remains to the people of 
God." 

Memorial Meeting. 

On November 4, 1912, the Woman's Home and Foreign 
Mission Societies met in the ladies' parlor of the Methodist 
church and held a memorial meeting in honor of Mrs. Massey, 



326 REMINISCENCES. 

whose zeal for-.the cause of missions exerted an incalculable 
influence for the uplift of the organizations of which she was 
the ruling spirit. The meeting was presided over by Rev. J. 
A. Thompson. The following tributes were feelingly given : 

BY DR. J. A. THOMPSON. 

If I were to speak of the life of Mrs. Massey just as she lived among 
us to an audience that had not known her, I should be charged with the 
use of extravagant language, so strenuous, so efficient, so beautiful was her 
life. 

Possessing more than ordinary natural endowment, she was a student 
all of her life, availing herself of every opportunity which was within her 
reach. She kept abreast with the advancing column of progress. 

She found a broad field of activity by her intimate relation with the 
Alabama Conference Female College, which for a third of a century stood 
for the most thorough education available at the time. 

The large family of girls annually assembled within its consecrated halls 
came under her skillful formative hand. The excellence of her work is 
evidenced in the character of the alumnse who adorn the various walks of 
life. 

She possessed a constant and burning enthusiasm for missions. Her 
labors for this cause were unceasing. She brought to it a thorough prep- 
aration. Her comprehension of the cause was conspicuous. I have thought 
that she was the best informed on missions, man or woman, I have ever 
known. That knowledge was not confined to the Woman's Department, 
but embraced the whole cause. She gave to it her time, her talent, her toil, 
and her means cheerfully and without stint. 

As a member of the Church she was all that could be reasonably ex- 
pected. She was present at all the services, an attentive, devout worshiper. 
A friend to the pastor, her presence and words gave encouragement when 
she was herself laboring under burdens of crushing weight. 

Mrs. Massey exalted and illumined every station in Hfe which she was 
called to fill. She was, indeed, the complement of the strong man with 
whom she was so intimately associated in the arduous work of the college. 
No one so fully appreciated her worth. I was in his study at the time of 
her departure. He said : "I consider it a great honor to have been the hus- 
band of such a woman." She did not hear. She did not know. But this 
is her greatest eulogy. 

She was a woman of large sympathy for all the distressed conditions 
of humanity. She did what she could to alleviate suffering. She was 
Mother Bountiful to the poor. No one was permitted to hunger if within 
her reach. She visited the sick; she clothed the naked; she mourned with 
the mourners. For these she broke the vessel containing the precious oint- 
ment and anointed our Lord for his burial. As peacemaker she sought to 
reconcile differences and prevent the infelicities that spring up in social 
life. 



REMINISCENCES. z'2-7 

Those who knew her best and were familiar with her condition were 
astonished at what she did. Many times the remark has been made to me : 
"Mrs. Massey was much of the time engaged in active work when she 
should have been at home in her room." Such was her zeal, such her love 
for the Master's work. 

Perhaps the most pronounced trait in her character was her absolute 
"self-effacement." Nothing could induce her to come out into the public 
eye. 

The death of Mrs. Massey is a great loss to this community. We per- 
haps shall not see her Hke again. A life so noble, so unselfish, so efficient, 
so productive is not seen many times in a generation. 

God grant that your society may indicate your love for this grand woman 
by renewed zeal and efficiency in the things so near her heart and to which 
she gave her life ! 

BY MRS. L. W. JOHNSTON. 

Death has again entered our ranks and claimed one of our most beloved 
and valuable members. What sad reflections crowd upon us when we 
contemplate how great a loss we have sustained, not only as individuals, 
but as societies ! We have gathered here this afternoon to offer the tribute 
of love and esteem to the memory of one who was endeared to many of 
us by the ties of friendship and to all by the magnanimity of her nature. 
Her death is a great grief to the Church, the societies, the community, 
and to her friends and to loved ones an irreparable loss. The dearest 
memory to us who have felt the pressure of her hand and seen the sunlight 
on her face is the abiding vision of the woman herself, as she lived a pure, 
noble, unselfish, and useful life. We cannot tell what things may be given 
her to do; but we are sure that her higher life in that glorious world 
will be one of activity, of ministry to others, perhaps to us in ways we 
cannot understand. 

Words fail me to express how heavy the blow. May her beautiful ex- 
ample of Christlike faith live with us forever, calling us to higher and more 
glorious things! 

BY MISS TSSIE STEVENS. 

The memory of a beautiful life is a benediction. Such was the life 
and such is the memory of Mrs. E. F. Massey, whose going away so 
recently has left a vacancy in our hearts and ranks, a vacancy that cannot 
be filled. With a bright and cultured mind there was blended a sweet 
Christian character which gave her an influence that brightened and in- 
spired the lives of those who knew her. Hers was a large and generous 
personality; great because as a little child she walked with God in 
humility, seeking not the fame of this world, but striving to uplift fallen 
and suffering humanity in every way possible. This sweet and godly life 
will make the world more beautiful for many years to come. Let us who 
live carry forward her works of love and mercy. 



328 REMINISCENCES. 

BY MRS. ERIN I, HOWARD. 

As I attempt to write a memorial of Mrs. Massey a picture rises be- 
fore me so full of wonderful strength and tenderness that I scarcely know 
how to blend the colors of a written page into a description of her life. 
The conspicuous elements of her character were love of truth, simplicity, 
tenderness, and justice. Those qualities that dominated her Christian life 
were activity in service, cheerful submission in suffering, patience, and 
forgiveness under wrong. Her friendship was the same in quality to the 
servant who did her bidding, the neighbor in poverty and distress, as to 
the cherished friend in equal station. Verily she moved among us as "one 
who delighted to do good," spending herself for the sake of others, letting 
no opportunity pass through which she might lead a soul to Christ. 

Her love for souls did not stop with those with whom she came in 
daily contact. She considered herself a debtor to the Christless world. 
She loved the God-appointed work of missions with a consuming passion. 
When the work grew, she glorified in its prosperity; if it languished, she 
agonized over it, always watching it with a love stronger than life. To 
this cause she gave her service, her means, her talents. Such lives do not 
end. The "mortal having put on immortality," she is still a fellow worker 
with her Lord and so with us in the interest of his kingdom. Let us look 
forward to the coming of the morn when "those angel faces smile which 
we have loved long since and lost awhile." 



BY MRS. D. E, LASLIE. 

It is with an effort that I attempt to pay an humble tribute to our be- 
loved friend and leader. In the first place, all that her friendship meant to 
me can never be put into words. In the second place, her life of unselfish 
devotion to the Master's cause speaks so eloquently for itself that there is 
nothing left to be said. 

I have sat at her feet, physically and spiritually, since the days of my 
earliest childhood, and the love I felt for her then has only grown deeper 
and purer as my maturer judgment has enabled me to see and appreciate 
the manifold beauties of her character. No eulogy I may pronounce can 
add to the luster which surrounds her name. Who of us that have felt 
the influence of her dominant personality, have listened to her loving coun- 
sel, or known her gentle ministrations in sickness or sorrow could ever 
forget it? Her clear insight into the spiritual world, her unwavering faith 
in God made her presence a benediction in the home where trouble or grief 
had entered. There is hardly a family in town that does not recall a 
time when she brought comfort and strength in their hour of need. 

With an uncompromising attitude toward sin she combined a compas- 
sionate pity toward the sinner. More than one whose feet had strayed have 
felt her firm hand lift them from the depths of despair. None ever sank 
too low for her to cease to believe that the divine spark still lived and that 
there was a chance for reclamation. 



REMINISCENCES. 329 

The scope of her charitable activities was so great, her self-forgetfulness 
so absolute, as to constitute a great tax on her failing strength. We have 
all seen her on errands of mercy or lending the inspiration of her presence 
to these meetings when her physical condition, did not warrant her being 
out of bed. 

Her tomb was built of bricks from the dear old college in which she 
had spent thirty-three years. It seemed to me a beautiful thing that the 
walls which had so long been her home should shelter all that was earthly 
of her to the end of time. 

Dr. Grogan, of Montgomery, in the memorial held there, extracted from 
this fact a thought worthy to be remembered. He said that, while all that 
was mortal of her was inclosed in the old college bricks, her soul, her high 
ideals, infused into the hearts and characters of so many of the women of 
Alabama, would live on and on into eternity. 

I cannot close without a word about our beloved Dr. Massey. His 
devotion to her is too well known for comment. She was the lodestar 
of his life, and yet the simple dignity and grandeur with which he has met 
this overwhelming grief transcends' anything I can say. It can only be 
described by Goldsmith's beautiful simile: 

"As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form. 
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm. 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

We have lost a friend, one whose place in our hearts and lives cannot 
be filled ; but may her death only help us to realize as never before that 

"The tomb is not an endless night: 

It is a thoroughfare, a way. 
That closes in a soft twilight 
And opens in eternal day" ! 

RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT. 

Whereas our Heavenly Father in his inscrutable wisdom has removed 
from earth in the prime of her consecrated usefulness Mrs. Elnora Frances 
Massey; and whereas for more than thirty years she stood at the fore- 
front of the influences that have tended to righteousness; and whereas 
in her latter years, when she was relieved of the heavy burdens of college 
life, she became a leader among women and by her engaging personality 
and spiritual strength infused much of the enthusiasm she felt in the cause 
of missions into the society of which she became the ruling spirit and 
honored President ; therefore be it 

Resolved, That in her death our society has sustained an irreparable 
loss, but a loss which is her gain, in her translation from earthly pain to 
the joys of Paradise. 

Resolved, That, inspired with the memory of her beautiful life, we will 



330 REMINISCENCES. 

pray that its influence may go on and find its outcome in lives of greater 
efficiency and consecration. 

Resolved, That we tender our deepest sympathy to her loved ones, who 
in their daily walk will sadly miss her genial companionship. 

Resolved, further, That copies of these resolutions be spread upon the 
minutes of our society and be sent to the bereaved household and to the 
Alabama Christian Advocate. 

By order of the President. Mrs. C. H. Cobb, 

Mrs. S. L. Brewer, 

Committee. 



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